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*1892 *- 



THE ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDEfiT Hj\P,HISO^. 



nr 1 1 1', administration of Benjamin Harrison lias been crowded with incidents and 

executive accomplisliments tiiat will mark it as second in ini])ortance to that only 
of Abraham Lincoln. Almost his first official act was the appointment of his Cabinet 
which was composed as follows : Sectretary of State, James G. Blaine ; Secretary of^ 
Treasury, \Villiam Windom; Secretary of War, R. F. Proctor: Secretary of Navy, B 
V. Tracy; Postmaster-Cieneral, John Wanamaker; Secretary of Interior, J. W. Noble; 
Secretary of Agriculture, Jeremiah Rusk. For Attorney-General he selected his life- 
long friend and partner, W. H. H. Miller. To these selections must be added the dip- 
plomats sent to foreign countries, which in their entirety formed a most interesting and 
distinguished corps. The number of deaths occurring to those directly and indirectly 
connected with Mr. Harrison and his administration is not the least remarkable history 
of the i)ast four years. 

In the American system the President is not so mucli a deviser of policies as an 
executor of law. It was not intended by the Constitution tluit he should govern the 
people, but simply that he should administer their decrees. So vast, however, were the 
powers intrusted to .\Ir. Harrison, and so wide his discretion in the assertion of them, 
that inevitably he imparted form as well as direction to the Government. When we 
speak of the policies of the administration, therefore, we speak of something that has 
real substance and leal results, and yet is not inconsistent with the constitutional 
theory. 

President Harrison brought to the discharge of his duties a mind that liad been 
trained in public affairs. As a Senator of the United States he had learned to know 
the country, its interests, its questions and its people. Eminently a practical man, he 
gave a ])ractical character to his government, ^t has been a working government. 
Under it the departments have moved swiftly and directly in the daily task of admin- 
istration. They have all been stimulated by the President's requirement that each day's 
record should tell of actual achievement. He gave constant personal attention to their 
affairs, shaping their policies and directing their methods. He has been em[)hatically 
the head of his administration, while conceding to each of his Cabinet officers that 
authority and consideration which their position and experience made appropriate. 

Foremost among the problems confronting President Harrison as he crossed the 
threshold of office was the Samoan difficulty with (Jermany. The dispute concerned 
Germany's effort to annex the Samoan Islands, one of the small South Pacific groups 
which are still independent. They lie directly in our ]iath to Australia. They contain 
a United States coaling station, to secure which the (lovernment had guaranteed the 
protection of native autonomy. 

Mr. Blaine's first work was to dispatch a commission to treat with the German 
Government on this question, upon the understanding that the United States could not 
permit the supremacy of any foreign authority in Samoa, This condition was accepted 




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reluctantly perhaps but promptly, so soon as Germany was made to understand that tlie 
United States were really in earnest. Within six months after Mr. 151aine's accession to 
the State Department, the ITnited States, Germany and England had agreed ui)on a 
treaty that secured peace and independence to Samoa, and the perpetuation of our in- 
terests there unimpaired. 

The Hehring Sea question, which was still unsettled at the time of President Har- 
rison's accession, was settled upon a basis which sustains the American position 
until arbitration shall have determined the right. 

In the summer of 1885 the Canadians of British Columbia raided the American 
seal rookeries in Dehring Sea, and began the same destructive methods of slaughter 
that had almost e.xterminated the fur seal in other sections of the globe. 

Their plan was to hover in Hehring Sea around the passes of the Aleutian chain, 
and, as the seal appeared on their way to the Pribyloff Islands, to fall upon them with 
guns and spears. 

President Harrison took up the controversy, enforcing the American claims in 
terms that left no doubt of his intention to have them definitely adjusted. He denied 
the British contention that the freedom of the seas carried with it the license to do' 
whatever anybody i)leased thereon regardless of the rights of others. He held that the 
seas were free for purposes that were innocent, but not for marauding enterjjrises 
against another's proi)erty. Finally, an arrangement was secured by which the conflict- 
ing assertions were submitted to friendly arbitration, each nation agreeing meanwhile 
to prohibit sealing of all kinds, thereby insuring the safety and increase of the ,herd. 
This was a notable victory for justice and peace. 

Among the accomplishments which will make the history of the Slate Department 
under Harrison's administration memorable is the relation which it has established be- 
tween this nation and the people of Latin America. When Mr. Blaine was a member 
of the Garfield Cabinet he conceived the idea of a Pan-American Congress to be held 
at Washington. He issued invitations to every nation of Central and South America 
to participate in the conference, and appointed a day when it should assemble. 

The breaking out of the Chili- Peruvian war caused the abandonment of his great 
enterprise. It was revived by Mr. Blaine under President Harrison, and carried out 
successfully. Twenty-five principles to govern the political and commercial relations 
of the nations concerned were agreed upon. 

Among these were a scheme of arbitration by which it is hoped that international 
war upon this continent will be rendered forever impossible; the establishment of an 
international monetary union for the issue of uniform coin; the appointment of inter- 
national commissioners to consider railway and steamship communications; the estab- 
lishment of an international American bank, of a uniform system of customs regulations, 
of a uniform system of extradition treaties, of a uniform plan for the protection of jjatents 
and copyrights, and the preparation of a code of commercial and civil law. Much 
has since been done to carry these agreements into practical effect. 

President Harrison has taken a calm, dignified stand for American rights. The 
])osition of the administration was thus stated in the President's message to Congress 
on the Chilian affair: 

" In submitting these papers to Congress for that grave and patriotic considera- 
tion which the questions involved demand, I desire to say that I am of the opinion that 
the demands made of Chili by this Government should be adhered to and enforced. If 
the dignity, as well as the prestige and influence, of the United States are not to be 
wholly sacrificed, we must protect those who, in foreign parts, display the flag or wear 
the colors of this Government against insult, brutality and death inflicted in resentment 
of the acts of their Government, and not for any fault of their own. It has been my 



desire in every way to cultivate friendly and intimate relations with all the governments 
of this hemisphere. We do not covet their territory; we desire their peace and pros- 
perity. We look for no advantage in our relations with them, except the increased ex- 
changes of commerce upon a basis of mutual benefit. We regret every civil contest 
that disturbs their peace and paralyzes their government, and are always ready to give 
our good offices for the restoration of peace. It must, however, be understood that 
this Government, while exercising the utmost forbearance towards weaker powers, will 
extend its strong and adequate protection to its citizens, to its officers, and to its hum- 
blest sailors when made the victims of wantonness and cruelty in resentment, not of 
their personal conduct, but of the official acts of their Government." 

Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, in speaking at the Minneapolis convention of what 
President Harrison's administration had accomplished, said: 

"The administration has sedulously guarded all the financial interests of the people 
by its careful management of the Treasury and its sturdy opposition to the free coinage 
of silver. It has revised the tariff legislation on the lines of protection, renflering the 
law symmetrical. The annual expenditures of the Government now approximate 
$500,000,000, and will increase for a time at least with the growth of the country. 

" The present administration has had to deal with the question of enlarged expendi- 
tures growing out of the refund of direct taxes, expenses of the eleventh census, French 
spoliation claims, new naval vessels, repayment to importers for excess of moneys de- 
posited to secure the payment of duties, colleges for agricultural and mechanical arts, 
additional court expenses, homes for disabled volunteer soldiers, rivers and harbors, 
public buildings, back pay and bounty to soldiers, the Indian service and Indian war, 
prepayment of interest on the ])ublic debt, together with the meeting of deficits in the 
previous administration. Added to all this was the revenue cut off when the McKinley 
bill placed sugar on the free list. It has been able to meet these conditions; to avert a 
financial panic; to maintain the public credit; to reduce the public debt by a very large 
amount, and to refund a considerable portion of it at the unprecedentedly low rate of 2 
per cent. The vast business interests of the country have greatly prospered, and the 
people evidently feel that these interests are : .e in the hands which for three years have 
managed them so successfully." 

In addition to these splendid performances there must be set down to the credit 
of President Harrison's administration the successful conduct o' the controversy with 
Italy concerning the New Orleans riot, whereby foreign nations were convinced that 
bluster toward America was a profitless business. Consular reforms of the widest 
utility looking to the promotion of American interests abroad have been successfully 
put into operation. But greater perhaps than all of these in the practical advantages 
to be derived from them by the merchants and producers of America is the negotiation 
of the series of reciprocity treaties, which have already resulted in vastly stimulating 
American sales to Southern countries, and which promise an extension of export trade 
as quick as it will be varied and large. 

President Harrison has achieved a great reputation in a difficult field of oratory. 
He is a very ready speaker, equal almost to any occasion, and in grace of language, 
vigor of thought and appropriateness to the occasion, many of his speeches are models. 
Since he became President he has made frequent and long journeys, and often he has 
addressed the people who gathered to greet him in words that, although unstudied, 
were dignified and appropriate. As illustrating his style and setting forth his views on 
the present campaign, extracts are here given from his letter accepting the renomination 
as the Republican candidate lor President: 

'■ Few subjects have elicited more discussion or excited more general interest than 
that of a recovery by the United States of its appropriate share of the ocean carrying 



trade. This subject touches not only our pockets but our National pride. Practically 
all the freights for transporting to Europe the enormous annual supplies of provisions 
furnished by this country and for the large return of manufactured products have for 
many years been paid to foreign ship owners. The great ships — the fastest upon the 
sea — which are now in peace profiting by our trade, are in secondary sense war ships 
of their respective Governments, and in time oi war would, under existing contracts 
with those Governments, speedily take on the guns for which their decks arc already 
prepared, and enter with terrible efficiency upon the work of destroying our commerce- 
The undisputed fact is that tlic great steamship lines of Europe were built up and are 
now in part sustained by direct or indirect Government aid, the latter taking the form 
of liberal pay for carrying the mails or of an annual bonus given in consideration of 
agreements to construct the ships so as to adapt them for carrying an armament, and to 
turn them over to the Government on demand, upon specified terms. 

" It was plain to every intelligent American that if the United States would have 
such lines, a similar policy must be entered upon. The Fifty-first Congress enacted 
such a law, and under its beneficent influence sixteen American steamships, of an 
aggregate tonnage of 57,400 tons and costing $7,400,000, have been built or contracted 
to be built in .Vmerican shipyards. In addition to this, it is now practically certain that 
we shall soon have, under 'he American flag, one of the finest steamship lines sailing 
out of New York for any European port. This contract will result in the construction 
in American yards of four new passenger steamships of 10,000 tons each, costing 
about $8,000,000, and will add to our Naval reserve six steamships, the fastest upon the 
sea. 

"Another measure, as furnishing an increased ocean traffic for our ships, and of 
great and permanent benefit to the farmers and manufacturers as well, is the reciprocity 
policy declared by Section 3 of the Tariff act of 1890, and now in practical operation 
with five of the nations of Central and South America, San Domingo, the Spanish and 
British West India islands, and with Germany and Austria, under special trade arrange- 
ments with each. The removal of the duty on sugar and the continuance of coffee and 
tea upon the free list, while giving great relief to our own people by cheapening articles 
used increasingly in every household, was also of such enormous advantage to the 
countries exporting these articles as to suggest that in consideration thereof reciprocal 
favors should be shown in their tariffs to articles exported by us to their markets. 
Great credit is due to Mr. Blaine for the vigor with which he pressed this view upon 
the country. We have only begun to realize the benefit of these trade arrangements. 
The work of creating new agencies and of adapting our goods to new markets has 
necessarily taken time; but the results already attained are such, I am sure, as to estab- 
lish in popular favor the jjolicy of reciprocal trade, based upon the free importation of 
such articles as do not injuriously compete with the products of our own farms, mines 
or factories, in exchange for the free or favored introduction of our products into other 
countries. 

" The most convin( ing evidence of the tremendous commercial strength of our 
position is found in the fact that Great Britain and Spain have found it necessary to 
make reciprocal trade agreements with us for their West India colonies, and that Ger- 
many and .\ustria have given us important concessions in exchange for the continued 
free importation of their sugar. 

"And now a few words in regard to the existing tariff law. We are fortunately 
able to judge of its influence upon production and prices by the market reports. The 
day of the prophet of calamity has been succeeded by that of the trade reporter. An 
examination into the effect of the law upon the prices of protected product, and of the 
cost of such articles as enter into the living of people of small means has been made by 



a Senate committee, composed of leading Senators of both parties, with the aid of the 
best statisticians, and the report, signed by all the members of the committee, has been 
given to the public. No such wide and careful inquiry has ever before been made. 
These facts appear from the report: 

" First — The cost of articles entering into the use of those earnings less than $i,ooo 
per annum has decreased up to May, 1892, 3.4 per cent, while in farm products there 
has been an increase in prices, owing in part to an increased foreign demand and the 
opening of new markets. In England during the same period the cost of living in- 
creased 1.9 per cent. Tested by their power to purchase articles of necessity, the earn- 
ings of our working people have never been as great as they are now. 

" Second — There has been an average advance in the rate of wages of .75 of i per 
cent. 

" Third — There has been an advance in the price of all farm products of 18.67 P'Jr 
cent, and of all cereals 33.59 per cent. 

" The Civil Service system has been extended and the law enforced with vigor and 
impartiality. There has been no partisan juggling with the law in any of the depart- 
ments or bureaus as had before happened, but appointments to the classified service 
have been made impartially from the eligible lists. The system now in force in all the 
departments has for the first time placed promotions strictly upon the basis of merit, as 
ascertained by a daily record, and the efficiency of the force thereby greatly 
increased. 

" The general condition of our country is one of great prosperity. The blessing 
of God has rested upon our fields and upon our people. The annual value of our 
foreign commerce has increased more than $400,000,000 over the average for the pre- 
ceding ten years and more than $210,000,000 over 1890, the last year unaffected by the 
new tariff. Our exports in 1S92 exceeded those of 1890 by more than $172,000,000 
and the annual average for ten years by $265,000,000. Our exports of breadstuffs in- 
creased over those of 1890 more than $144,000,000; of provisions over $4,000,000, and 
of manufacturers over $8,000,000. The merchandise balance of trade in our favor in 
1892 was $202,944,342. No other nation can match the commercial ])rogress which 
these figures disclose. 

" A change in the personnel of a National administration is of comparatively little 
moment. If those exercising public functions are able, honest, diligent and faithful, 
others possessing all these qualities may be found to take their places. But changes in 
the laws and in administrative policies are of great moment, ^^'hen public affairs have 
been given a direction and business has adjusted itself to those lines, any sudden 
change involves a stoppage and new business adjustments. If the change of direction 
is so radical as to bring the commercial turn-table into use, the business changes in- 
volved are not readjustments but reconstructions. 

" The policy of the Republican party is distinctively a policy of safe progression 
and development — of new factories, new markets and new ships. It will subject busi- 
ness to no perilous change, but offers attractive opportunities for expansion upon 
familiar lines." 



^HiriTELAW I^EID. 



\ X / 1 1 1 I'KI.AW REll), tlic Republican nomiiH'c for the office of \"ice-Presi(lent, was 
^^ born in Xenia, Ohio, on October 27,1837. His father, Robert Charlton Reid, 
had married Marian Whitelaw Rounds, a descendant in direct line from the Clan 
Roland of the highlands of Scotland. His paternal grandfather, also of Scotch blood, 
a stern old Covenanter, was one of the earliest ])ioneers to this country, settling in the 
township of Xenia. Whitelaw Reid was fitted for college by an uncle, Hugh McMillan, 
D. D., a Scotch Covenanter, a trustee of Miami University, and principal of the old and 
time-honored Xenia Academy, then considered the best preparatory school in the State. 
Under the classical training of his uncle Whitelaw Reid became so well drilled in Latin 
that at the age of fifteen he entered Miami as a Soiihomore, with a rank ecpial to the 
older scholars. This was in i<S53, and three years later he graduated with scientific 
honors. Just after graduation he was made princi[)al in the graded schools of South 
Charleston, Ohio, where he taught French, Latin and the higher mathematics to imme- 
diate pupils generally older than himself, paying while here the expenses of his senior 
year in college. He returned to his home at the age of twenty, and purchased The 
Xenia Xews, and during the following two years led the life of a country editor. 

Mr. Reid was an original Republican, and early in life identified himself with the 
then new Repul)lican party, taking the stump for John C. Fremont. He was ever a 
reader of The New York Tribune, and edited his own paper with such success as to 
double its circulation. In i860, notwithstanding his personal admiration of Mr. Chase, 
he advocated the nomination of Mr. Lincoln, The News being one of the first Western 
newspapers to do so, and through his influen<:e a Lincoln delegate was elected to the 
Republican convention from the Xenia district. After meeting Mr. Lincoln in Colum- 
bus he entered iiito the business of the campaign and made some stirring speeches. Too 
much e.xertion caused him to withdraw from the political arena. He traveled exten- 
sively throughout tlie Northwest, and the following winter he returned to Columbus as a 
legislative correspondent for The Cincinnati Times. After a few weeks of his engage- 
ment with The Times had ela])sed he obtained an offer at a higher figure from The 
Cleveland Herald, followed by a still larger salary from The Cincinnati Gazette, liy 
means of these three engagements he was put in receipt of some $38 a week, quite a 
good income for a journalist in those days. The task of writing three daily legislative 
themes, distinct in tone, severely tried his versatility and courage, but gave to him that 
thorough journalistic training which rendered his future labors comparatively light and 
attractive. At the close of that session of the Legislature The Cazette offered him the 
post of city editor, which he creditably filled until the beginning of the civil war, when 
Mr. Reid, by order of the Gazette {"omi)any, followed McClennan as war correspond- 
ent. General Morris had command of the advance, and Mr. Reid, as representative of 
this foremost journal, was assigned to duty as volunteer aide-de-iamp, with the rank of 
a captain. He began service as a war correspondent over the signature of "Agate," and 
wrote a series of letters which attracted general attention. After the West Virginia 
campaign he returned to The Gazette office, and for a time wrote editorial leaders. Serv- 
ing again during the second West Virginia campaign on the staff of General Rosecrans, 
he returned after the battles of Carnifi.\ F"erry and Ganley Bridge, resuming his editor- 



iai duties, and helped to organi/.e an extra staff of correspondents. Fairly established 
as a journalst of much promise he made a subsequent career of brilliant service in the 
West. In 1 86 1-62 he went to Fort Donelson, recorded the Tennessee campaign, arrived 
at Pittsburgh, landing weeks in advance of the battle fought there, and, leaving a sick 
bed, was the only correspondent who witnessed the fight from the beginning to the 
close, and it was his graphic account of this battle in a ten-column story to The Gazette 
that stamped him as a newspaper correspondent of the first class. 

Mr. Reid went to Washington in the spring of 1862 for The Gazette, tlie proprietors 
offering him a handsome interest in their establishment at a fair price. His share of the 
profits for the first year amounted to two-thirds of the cost, and laid tlie foundation of his 
fortune. As a correspondent at the National Capital for The Gazette he attracted the 
notice of Horace Greeley by his e.xeeutive and literary ability, who from that time be- 
came a loyal and unswerving friend. While on a trip tlirough the South •" i S65, as the com- 
panion of Chief Justice Chase, Mr. Reid gathered his material for his first contribution to 
literature in the form of a book, entitled "After the War, a Southern Tour." This book 
was considered a fair reflex of its author's indei)cndent and practical experience of men 
and matters and a good record of Southern affairs during the years immediately follow- 
ing the war. After that he tried cotton planting in partnership with General Francis J. 
Herron, but after two years, though not a loser, Iiisgain was principally in business expe- 
rience. In 1868 he finished and published his second work, on which he had been 
engaged for three years, entitled " Ohio in the War," consisting of two large volumes, 
with more than a thousand pages in each. It proved to be a comprehensive and com- 
plete history of the part that State took in the rebellion, and included sketches of a 
number of the most prominent generals, and is to-day considered a monument of 
industry and a model for every State work of this kind. 

After the publication of this book Mr. Reid during the same year resumed the 
duties of leader writer on Tb.e Gazelle. 

On the imjjeachment of President Johnson he went to Washington and rejiorted 
carefully that transaction. The invitation made by Mr. Greeley to Mr. Reid several 
times before of connecting himself with the editorial staff of The Tribune was finally 
accepted during the summer, and as leading editorial writer, with a salary next in 
amount to that of Horace Greeley, he wrote many conspicuous leaders during the cam- 
paign that ended in the first election of General Grant. Shortly after Mr. Reid was 
installed in the managing editor's chair, and in this advancement retained the confi- 
dence of his chief. By a bold outlay of funds in 1870 Mr. Reid surjiassed all rivals 
at home and abroad in reports of the Franco- Prussian war, and with full power from 
that time to proceed he gradually reorganized and strengthened the staff of The 
Tribune. After the nomination of Mr. Greeley for President in 1872, Mr. Reid was 
made editor-in-chief of The Tribune, which office, though accepted with reluctance, was 
filled with his customary courage and determination. Much surprise was created 
both among his friends and foes after the disastrous campaign of 1872, by the amount 
of resources which Mr. Reid's conduct had gained for him in the shape of capital 
placed at his disposal, and he was thus enabled to gain entire control of The Tribune. 

Mr. Reid's public services as a journalist led his friends repeatedly to urge liim to 
enter other departments of public life. President Hayes and President Garfield 
offered him the position of .\meri(:an Minister to Germany, but on both occasions he 
declined the honor. In 1878 he was elected by the Legislature of New York to be a 
regent for life of the university. Finally in March he was prevailed upon to accei>t the 
offer of President Harrison as American Minister to F'rance, which important post he suc- 
ceeded in filling to the credit of his country an<l himself. He secured tlie repeal of the 
French decree prohibiting the importation of American meats, and negotating reciprocity 



and extradition treaties. He resigned office and came home m April, 189., when he was 
honored with dinners by the Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Society and the Lotus 
Society. j^uiuo 

Mr. Reid was called upon during the memorable Minneapolis convention of 1802 
by his party to fill the high ofifice of Vice-President, and the nomination which was 
made unanimous on June 10 shows the honor in which the Republican party held him 
His name was placed before the convention by Senator Edmund O'Connor of Bm-' 
hamton, N. Y., and was seconded by General Porter ' "" 

The Convention Hall began filling rapidly early in the evening. President Harri- 
son had been nominated for a second term on June 9, amid one of the most enthusiastic 
Republican gatherings in the history of the party. And the interest had continued into 
the next day by the great crowd which collected in the hall to witness the second 
choice for the party The galleries were well filled by 8.45 o'clock, and there appeared 
to be no lessening of the uproar which had characterized the proceedings of Tune g 
with Its strains of the day session and continued bursts of applause. A minute later 
Chairman McKinley brought his gavel down for order, and the evening session be<.an 

After the hush Chairman McKinley announced that the first business was the'pre- 
sentafons of candidates for the Vice-Presidency. The roll of States was -ailed and 
the doors opened to the outside crowds, who soon had filled every seat in the great'hall 
\hen New \ork was reached Senator O'Connor rose to present the name of Mr White- 
aw Reid, of New York, for Vice-President. General Porter then stepped to the plat- 
form and seconded the nomination in an eloquent speech, saying that the name he had 
to present would command the respect of all people, being that of New York's favorite 
son, a worthy successor to Horace Greeley, the creator of Modern Journalism He 
closed his remarks at 9.15, and was heartily cheered. Delegate Settle of Tennessee 
then P;esented the name of Thomas B. Reed of Maine, seconded by a Kansas delegate 
and Mr. Loughthan of Virginia. The Maine delegation then asked that no action 
should be taken until they had received authority of Mr. Reed, as they thought he would 
decline the honor, and on behalf of his brethren Delegate Loughthan withdrew Mr 
keedsname. It was understood from the close of the afternoon session that New 
\ork State could nominate the candidate for Vice-President. Some talk was made of 
\ ice-Pres.dent Levi P. Morton's renomination, and efforts were made to secure the con- 
sideration of Eliott F. Shephard, but when the caucus of New York's delegates was 
made early in the evening the selection of Whitelaw Reid was made promptly and unan- 
imously, fhere was a general feeling from the start that Mr. Reid was the candidate 
most acceptable to all. General Porter's references in his speech to Mr Reid's diplo- 
matic career drew forth responsive applause. He reviewed further his services abroad 
His duty done he assigned the office which he never sought. When he returned to 
America all the honors in the land were heaped upon him. He had always believed 
oyalty to party was next to country. He had always believed in party. It was said 
that Mr. keid had difficulties with the typographical unions. This had been settled In 
conclusion General Porter said that with Whitelaw Reid they would march to vict'ory 
After the adjournment of the convention the committee on notification assembled at 
the desk of Chairman McKinley and completed its organization. 



The ADMIfilSTRATlON OF Pl[ESlDENT ClEVEL>ND 



T^HE inauguration of President Cleveland on ^^a^ch 4, 1885, will be remembered 
* as marked with much pageantry and general rejoicing. The exercises were 
organized with great elaboration. The regular Army, the Marines, the Navy, the 
Artillery, the Marine Rand and large detachments from the Militia of many States 
swelled the military procession to more than thirty thousand men. On the day follow- 
ing the inauguration, President Cleveland began the organization of his E.xecutive 
Department by sending to the Senate the names of the men he had selected as members 
of his Cabinet. These names were : Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary of State ; 1 )aniel 
Manning, Secretary of Treasury, William C. Endicott, Secretary of War ; William C. 
Whitney, Secretary of Navy ; William F. Vilas, Postmaster-General ; Lucius (). C. 
Lamar, Secretary of Interior, and Augustus H. Garland, Attorney-General. The 
President selected Daniel S. Lament as his Private Secretary. 

President Cleveland exercised much care in filling the less dignified of the e.xecu- 
tive offices in his gift. Among his appointments were Charles S. Fairchild as Assistant 
Secretary of the Treasury, who came to the head of that office upon the retirement of 
his chief, Mr. Manning. 

George A. Jenks was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Interior and later Solic- 
itor-General of the United States ; Malcolm Hay was selected as First Assistant Post- 
master-General, but was compelled by ill health to give up the office. He was succeeded 
by Adlai E. Stevenson, now the Democratic candidate for \'ice-President ; Norman J. 
Colman became Commissioner of Agriculture, and gave the department such dignity 
and usefulness that it was raised to the rank of a Cabinet office, with him as its first in- 
cumbent. Conrad M. Jordan was made Treasurer of the United States, and impressed 
his ideas and polii^y upon the general management of his office. The late Gen. Joseph 
E. Johnston became Commissioner of Railroads, and Gen. William S. Rosecrans was 
appointed Register of the Treasury, while Gen. John C. Black became Commissioner 
of Pensions. 

In the diplomatic service President Cleveland used the same care and judgment 
as in his other appointments. This was shown by the selection of Edward J. Phelps, of 
Vermont, as Minister to England ; Robert M. McLane, of Maryland, to France ; George 
H. Pendleton, of Ohio, to Crermany ; Samuel S. Cox and Oscar S. Straus, of New York, 
as successive Ministers to Turkey; J. B. Stallo, of Ohio, to Italy; J. L. M. Curry, of 
Virginia, to Spain, and Chas. Denby, of Indiana, to China. The minor offices were 
filled with the same general type of men as those already mentioned. He proceeded in 



the same way to choose the best men he could fiml for collectors of the [lorts and post- 
masters of the principal cities. 

Most of the men in im])ortant places were chosen wiih direct reference to their 
character and fitness. They were Democrats, of course, and only a single appointment, 
that of Postmaster of New York, having been made from men who were not avowed 
members of the President's own parly. In this case the late Henry G. Pearson had 
done so much to improve the postal service, in which he had grown up from boyhood, 
that he was reappointed by the President, and that, too, in sjjite of the protest of the 
more violent of his own ])artisans. 

In reviewing rapidly the history of the four years of Grover Cleveland's adminis- 
tration, it will be imi)0ssible to follow at all times the clironological method. A more 
satisfactory and certainly a more logical plan is to treat the administration topically ; 
that is, to review the distinctive work of the various departments. 

It will be conceded by every student of our jiolitical history that however able the 
advisers of a President may be, he will, if he is a man of ability and lofty character, 
dominate his administration at nearly every point. Everything done cannot be his, 
but, as a rule, no great thing can be done unless it is the expression of the opinions 
and the carrying out of the policy of such a man. 

The politics of this country are almost free from serious difficulties with foreign 
governments, so that when complications arise that might be looked upon as trivial in 
other lands, they produce with us a sense of irritation quite out of proportion to their 
real importance. During the four years of Mr. Cleveland's administration no serious 
misunderstanding arose, and yet there was abundant occasion for diplomatic interven- 
tion, and for the careful conduct of the matters assigned to the Secretary of State. 
There was no scandal in the management of the department ; no attempt was made to 
e.xploit any so-called foreign policy, when nothing in the situation reciuired it. 

Intervention was asked by naturalized American citizens of Irish birth, tried under 
English laws for offenses committed in England. Their cases were carefully consid- 
ered and representations made to the Go\ernment of Her Maiesty that their release 
would be agreeable to the authorities of this country; it ap[)eared, however, that the 
prisoners did not claim the protection of this Government at the lime of arraignment 
and trial, and that they had been fairly tried under English laws and convicted of seri- 
ous offenses against person and property. So it became evident that their claim tor 
protection from their adopted country was not well founded. 

One distinctive feature of the administration was the success of Oscar S. Straus, 
Minister to Turkey, in putting the American missions and the schools connected witii 
them upon a recognized basis. For many years before Mr. Cox and Mr. Straus were 
sent to Turkey our representatives there had been little more than ridiculous. Mr- 
Straus went carefully to work to correct any e.xisting wrongs and to put the missions 
and their schools upon a permanent basis. In this he was eminently successful. 

During the earlier part of the administration a comprehensive treaty with China 
was negotiated by the Secretary of State under the direction of the President. Under 
the provisions of this treaty the Chinese Government agreed to meet the views of the 
United States and to prevent further immigration into this country of ('liinese laborers- 
But the Senate inserted in this treaty some insignificant amendments which the limperor 
of China refused to ratify or accept. It was this refusal to accept a definite treaty that 
rendered necessary the drastic legislation of the last year of the Cleveland administra- 
tion, and which took form in what was known as the " Scott law." If President Cleve- 
land's treaty had been ratified, further immigration of Chinese to this country would 
have been prevented by agreement quite as effectively as it is now done by force. 

A peculiar complication arose with Austria early in 1885. Soon after Mr. Cleve- 



land's accession to office he nominated as Minister to Italy a resident of Virginia, A. 
M. Kieley. It turned out that in 1S70 Mr. Kieley had made a speech at a public meet- 
ing in Richmond, in his State, in which he had indulged in violent denunciations of 
King Victor Emanuel for his treatment of the Pope. This having been developed, the 
Italian Government, through its representative in Washington, intimated to the Depart- 
ment of State that Mr. Kieley was persona non grata to the King. His nomination was 
withdrawn. Later his name was sent to the Senate to fill the office of Minister to 
Austria-Hungary. The man himself may not have been the wisest in the world, but 
he was in no way offensive. He may have lacked somewhat in the diplomatic quality, 
as was no doubt shown by the utterances already cited ; but at the same time it was a 
petty affair for a great government to claim as a cause of offense. 

Mr. Kieley had married a woman of Jewish birth, and the anti-Semitic agitation 
was then at its fiercest throughout all the German-speaking countries. For some rea- 
son, therefore, the Austrian Government made his withdrawal from Italy an excuse for 
objecting to his appointment as Minister to Vienna, and no other reason being available, 
the race of his wife was put forward. The Austrian Minister represented to the Secre- 
tary of State and to the President that no Jewess could be received in the social circles 
in Vienna, and that, as a consequence, her husband would not be an acceptable Minis- 
ter to the court of that country. This excuse was looked upon by Secretary Bayard as 
entirely too tlinisy, and he wrote a very powerful argument in justification of the 
appointment. The outcome was that the Vienna mission was left vacant for more 
than a year. 

In 1SS6 Mr. Phelps, Minister to the Court of St. James, concluded with Lord 
Rosebury, then Minister of Foreign Affairs under Mr. Gladstone, as the representative 
of her Majesty's Government, a new treaty providing for the extradition of criminals 
who should escape from the jurdisdiction of one country into that of another. It 
added four new extraditable offenses to the seven already recognized by existing 
treaties. 

When the Senate received the treaty from its Committee on Foreign Affairs, it 
was discovered that offensive words concerning the use of explosives had found a place 
in the treaty. It was assumed that this was an attempt on the part of England to se- 
cure the arrest of certain so-called dynamiters, and as a result the interpolation was at 
once resented by many classes of citizens. 

In February, 1888, a treaty was concluded between the representatives of the 
United States, Great Britain and Canada, which would have definitely settled the con- 
tention, which, since 1818, had gone on between the two English countries on one hand 
and the Lhiited States on the other hand. The negotiations were concluded in Wash- 
ington, and a treaty, fair to all interests, one under which all difficulties were in a fair 
way of being disposed of, was agreed to unanimously by the Commissioners from all 
the countries represented. The Senate, however, raised the old cry of surrender to 
Canada, and the treaty was rejected by a partisan vote. After its rejection the Presi- 
dent sent to Congress a message, in which he announced that unless Canadian exactions 
upon our fishermen should cease he should be compelled to resort to such measures as 
were authorized by laws already in existence, under which he would prohibit the transit 
of goods in bond across and over the territories of the United States to and from 
Canada. 

When Secretary Whitney took charge of the Navy, the United States did not have 
but one or two war vessels that could have kept the seas for a week, and was at the 
same time dependent upon English manufacturers for gun forgings, armor and second- 
ary batteries. At the close of the administration the register carried the names of five 
vessels, first-class not only in name but in reality. They were the Chicago, with 4,500 



tons displacement; Haltimore, with 4,400; Philadelphia, with 4, ,524; the new .-nd the 
old San Francisco, each of 4.0S3 tons. Several vessels were nearly completed at the 
close of Mt. Cle\eland's administration, and the present efficient Navy is due almost 
entirely to the careful and faithful execution of the laws passed by Congress on the 
part of Mr. Cleveland. In less than a year after the close of his administration the 
United States had eight or ten vessels of modern type, as creditable to the most pro- 
gressive nation upon earth as they would be useful to the most warlike. 

The Department of Justice was carried on with great efficiency. During a con- 
siderable portion of the time covered by the Cleveland Administration the duties of the 
Attorney-General were filled by his Solicitor General, George A. Jenks, but whether 
the work was directed by Mr. Garland or Mr. Jenks it was well and faithfully done. 
The President himself being a lawyer of careful training and recognized position, with 
a conscientious devotitm to his ])rofession, gave a close oversight to all questions 
of a legal character. 

During Mr. Cleveland's term a Chief Justice was chosen to succeed Morrison R. 
Waite. .-Kfter careful consideration this great office was conferred upon Melville W. 
Fuller, one of the leaders of his profession in the West, and the success with which he 
administered the important trust given him fully justifieil the confidence of the Presi- 
dent. An -Associate Justice was appointed in the person of L. (). C. T.amar, Mr. Cleve- 
land's Secretary of the Interior. He, too, has done his work with general acceptance 
to the country and his profession. One Circuit Judge and eleven District Judges were 
also appointed. All of these were men of excellent standing in their several localities; 
in fact, no President ever gave more careful attention to the choice of judges and all 
the men who had to do with the machinery of the law than did Mr. Cleveland. 

The post-office has grown so rapidly of late years and has become such an im- 
mense establishment that it demands the highest administrative talent in order that it 
may keep itself continually in touch with the rapid development of the country. 

In spite of the unexampled growth of the service a very decided saving was made 
in the transportation of the mails. This was effected by economy in steamboat and 
railway charges, by the discontinuance of allowances for apartment-car service, by a 
readjustment of the pay of land-grant railroads and in the reduced cost of mail equip- 
ment. While all this was done a marked improvement was made in the number and 
speed of the fast mail routes. For the first time in the history of the department jjar- 
cels post contracts were concluded with Mexico and the West Indian and South 
American countries, and the department itself at Washington was conducted with the 
greatest efficiency and economy. 

The most important policy advocated by Mr. Cleveland during his administration 
was that of tariff reform. 

In his first message in 1885 he had made a brief reference to the condition of our 
revenue laws, and had insisted, with emphasis, that a revision ought to be made; that 
the surplus then accumulating in the Treasury was an impending danger. He believed 
that it could only be met by a proper revision of the laws, and so asserted. It was, 
however, merely a paragraph in a message, and, being his first official reference to the 
question, it did not then attract the attention that was afterwards given it, when he jiut 
forth his ideas in a much more emphatic way. 

In 1886 he devoted still more attention to this question, giving to it a greater pro- 
portion of his annual review of the condition of the Government than had been done 
for many years before. But even this did not attract wide attention to the question. 

During the spring and summer of 1887 the condition of the Treasury, by reason 
of the rapid increase of the surplus, became a menace to the prosperity and the financial 
stability of the country. "^ The task of providing some way of escape from the difficulties 



which surrounded the country fell upon President Cleveland. He did this work, and 
in doing it, was led to consider with much greater care than ever before the necessary 
ways and means of removing the cause of such a disturbance. As a result he saw no 
other way than to reduce the taxes which had brought this condition of financial 
plethora. 

His annual message of 18S7, devoted entirely to the revenue system of the country, 
naturally followed. It was prompted by reason and good sense and was the result of 
honesty. For the first time since the war public attention was attracted to financial 
questions with a positiveness that could not be escaped. 

It would be difficult to overestimate the effect of this message. For one thing it 
took politics out of the ruts into which it had fallen, and gave the country something 
real, over which its voters might divide. In spite of the result of the election in 1888, 
and whatever may be the result of that of 1892 or any other that may follow, the good 
effects of the message of 1887 cannot be overestimated. 

Probably no document of the same length ever had so wide a reading in the same 
space of time as this message. It did not say anything new, but the man who wrote it 
had the courage to see the peril into which the country had been drawn by adherence to a 
dangerous policy, and, seeing this, he was willing to stake his political fortunes upon 
the correction of these wrongs. 

After the movement resulting from this message is carried to its logical conclusions 
it means that selfishness shall not add the power of Government to the force that it al- 
ready possesses. Nominally the man who wrote it and brought this moral force into 
politics was defeated for re-election, but in reality he was the most successful public 
man known to our history. The seeming defeat of that day was not a defeat at all; it 
was a victory for moral principles in politics and for a man who was ready to do what, 
ever lay in his power for those principles. It put new life into political discussion and 
took the country out and far away from the old and sectional questions that should 
have been dropped long before, and brought to the front new problems of every 
kind. 

Whatever effect it may have had upon his personal fortunes, nothing in the history 
of the country has had such a good effect upon a political party as did this message 
upon that of which Mr. Cleveland was and has been for many years the leader. 

Mr. Cleveland made speeches on many questions during his term of office. They 
were on all manner of questions, and related to almost every element in our population. 
Every one was short, pointed and bright and each showed the highest regard for the 
dignity of his office, a close and intimate knowledge of the questions discussed, a will- 
ingness to aid every good cause and all were thoroughly Democratic in tone and mat" 
ter. He put himself thereby in close relations with the people, never shirking any 
physical exertion that was necessary to go through a reception, or to do on such occa- 
sions what was deemed best by his friends and countrymen. Perhaps no man ever 
submitted to such an ordeal with a better grace or more willingness than he. 



^DLAi e. Stevenson. 



ADI.Al E. STEVENSON, the successful Democratic candidate for the Vice-Presi- 
dency of the United States, is a resident of Bloomington, 111. He was born in 
Christiansen county, Kentucky, on October 23, 1835, and received his preliminary edu- 
cation in the common schools of his native county. Later he entered Center College 
at Danville, and when he was si,\teen years old removed with his father's family to 
Bloomington, 1!!., where he studied law and was admitted to the bar One of his 
ancestors was a signer of the Mecklenburgh Declaration of Independence. He gradu- 
ated from college on his twentieth year. In 1859 he settled at Matamora, A\'oodford 
county. 111., and engaged in the practice of his profession. Here he remained for ten 
years, during which time he was a Master in Chancery of the Circuit Court for four 
years and District Attorney for a like period. The conspicuous ability with which he 
discharged the duties of these responsible offices attracted the favorable attention of the 
l)eoi)le of the judicial district, and in 1S64 he was named as the Presidential elector for 
the district. In the interest of General McClellan as the nominee of his party for the 
Presidency, he canvassed the entire State, speaking in every county. .\t the expiration 
of his term of office as District Attorney for Woodford county, in i86g, he returned to 
Bloomington and formed a law partnership with J. S. Ewing, which still exists. The 
firm has an extensive practice in the State and Federal Courts, and is considered the 
leading law firm in the central portion of the State. 

Mr. Stevenson was nominated for Congress by the Democrats of the Bloomington 
district in 1874. The district had been safely Republican by an almost invariable 
majority of 3000. His opponent was General McNulta, one of the first debaters in the 
State. The canvass was a remarkable one, the excitement at times resulting in intense 
personal antagonisms between the friends of the candidates. Mr. Stevenson was suc- 
cessful. His majority in the district exceeded 1200. He was in Congress during the 
exciting scenes incident to the Tilden-I layes contest in 1876. His jKirty renominated 
him for Congress a second time. In this contest he was defeated, but in 187S, having 
been nominated for the third time, he was again elected, increasing his majority in the 
district to 2000. 

.•\t the expiration of his second Congressional term he resumed the practice of law 
in Bloomington. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1SS4 
in Chicago, and after the election of Cleveland as President of the United States, was 
ajipointed First Assistant Postmaster-General, the duties of which are very exacting. 
During his incumbency of this office he made the official and personal acquaintance of 
many of the men who hel])ed secure him the nomination to the Vice-Presidency of the 
United States. His democratic habits and manners, his affability and invariable 
courtesy created a host of friends for him. 

Mr. Stevenson married a daughter of the Reverend Lewis Green, President of 
Center College in Danville, Ky., in December, 1866. He has three children, one son 
and two daughters, all of whom arc living. 

Mr. Stevenson has been always popular with the Democracy of Illinois. His juip- 
ularity extends to the Republican party, and he has many warm and close friends there, 



as was demonstrated by his election twice in a strong Republican district. Not only is 
he poi>ular in his own district but also in ^Vashington. It is not too much to say that 
Mr. Stevenson has very many warm friends in Washington. He was while in Washin"- 
ton equally popular with both political parties and possessed the confidence and friend- 
ship of President Cleveland and every member of his cabinet, and had the rcyfird and 
esteem of Democrats and Republicans in Congress alike. In the post-office deixnt- 
ment many of the employees expressed their gratification in many ways that this yreat 
honor had been bestowed upon a man of such splendid character and disposition. 

Mr. Stevenson's administration of post-office affairs was able and thorough, and he 
gained for himself an enviable record for efficiency and executive ability. The Demo- 
crats of Washington consider him an exceptionally strong candidate. 

He is rated among the very best lawyers of his State, and is a forcible and con- 
vincing sjjeaker, his oratory being of the ])ersuasive character. Although taking an 
active jiart in [jolitics in the interests of his party, he has never been rated as a poU- 
tician in tlie general acceinance of the word. 

After retiring from the office of the First Assistant Postmaster-CeneraJ at the 
expiration of Mr. Cleveland's term, .Mr. .Stevenson returned to liloomington, where he 
still lives and carries on the practice of law. Mr. Hayes in 1877 appointed Mr. 
Stevenson a member of the Board to inspect the Military Academy at West Point. 
The recent Illinois State Convention elected Mr. Stevenson one of the delegates at 
large to the National Democratic Convention which took place but a short time a"-o. 
He was serving in that capacity when nominated for the Vice-Presidency of the United 
States. 

The Democracy of .Vdlai E. Stevenson has never been questioned ; it is of the old 
school type, like that of the Roman Thurman. 

Many prominent men of to-day were among his former classmates, including 
Governors, Congressmen, Senators and Statesmen, some of whom are now mentioned : 
Senator Blackburn, Senator Davidson of Florida ; Ex-Governor McCreary, Honorable 
David Davis and many other men [jrominent in this country's affairs, who have risen to 
fame through the competent discharge of their duties. 

.Mr. Stevenson is thought by his party to possess all the necessary qualification 
of a Vice-President. Whether he has or not will be seen if the Democratic party 
proves victorious this fall. 

At the Convention Mr. Worthington of Illinois took the platform to nominate 
A. E. Stevenson. He kept silent a moment for the noise of a passing railway train and 
then began a comi)etition with the rain that beat on the roof. He addressed the 
assembled thousands as follows : 

Gentlemen.— (Applause)— Illinois has presented no Presidential candidate to this 
convention. It has within its border more than one favored son whom it would have 
delighted to honor, who are worthy of all the political honors that could be conferred 
upon them. But here in this great city— Chicago— in this great commonwealth of 
Illinois, in the centre of this great Republic, the Democracy, catching the vibration of 
the ground swell that came from the South to the East and the West, put aside its 
favorite son and for the time parted with its State pride, echoing back to Texas, 
Connecticut and California the name of Grover Cleveland (applause). But for the' 
Vice-Presidency, for the second highest place in the Government, it has a candidate 
so fully eciuipped by nature and education it feels it would be a political fault to fail to 
urge his name for the nomination before you. I stand here to nominate as a candidate 
a man known by every woman and child and voter who ever licked a postage stamp in 
the land— a big, big-hearted, big-brained man, whose courtesy was rarely equaled, and 
never excelled, who has been the beau ideal of an honest and efficient public office 



s 



holder. He believes that a public office is a public trust, but he believes also that the 
Democrats are the best trustees (Applause). 

In conclusion he presented as a candidate the Honorable Adlai E. Stevenson of 
Illinois. 

The following authentic table of votes shows in what light Stevenson stood at the 
Democratic Convention recently held in Chicago : 

Louisiana went solid for Stevenson. Maine voted, for Stevenson, 7 ; for Gray, 4. 
Maryland, for Gray, 12; for Stevenson, 4. Massachusetts, Stevenson, 20; Gray, 4. 
Mississippi, Stevenson, 7 ; Gray, 9. Missouri said the State was instructed to vote as 
a unit, but was unable to agree, so her vote was cast as follows : Missouri, Stevenson, 
16 ; Gray, 10. Nebraska, Stevenson, 6 ; Gray, 5. New Hampshire was solid for 
Stevenson. New Jersey, Stevenson, i ; Gray, 19. New York was called amid great 
excitement, and went solid for Stevenson, casting 72 votes for him amid tumultuous 
cheers. This put Stevenson 43 votes ahead. North Carolina also went solid for 
Stevenson, giving him 22 votes. Ohio voted 38 votes to Stevenson and 4 to Gray, thus 
increasing his lead to 93 amid cheers. Pennsylvania, Stevenson, 17 ; Gray, 64. This 
left Gray only 21 behind. South Carolina, Stevenson solid, 18 votes. South Dakota, 
Stevenson, 4 ; Gray, 2. Tennessee, Stevenson, 8 ; Gray, 14. Texas, Stevenson, 26, 
Gray, 4 ; increasing Stevenson's lead once more to 49. Vermont, Stevenson, i ; 
Gray, 7. Virginia went solid for Stevenson with 24 votes, bringing him up 1067. West 
Virginia, Stevenson, 4 ; Gray, 4. Arizona, Stevenson, 5 ; Gray, i. New Mexico, 
Stevenson, i ; Gray, 5. Oklahoma went solid for Stevenson with 2 votes. Total, 
Stevenson, 403 ; Gray, 343. Iowa withdrew her 26 for Watterson and cast them for 
Stevenson. Montana changed her votes to Stevenson. Nebraska changed 5 votes 
from Mitchell to Stevenson and 5 from Gray to Stevenson. Nevada changed 5 votes 
to Stevenson, making his total 445. Ohio directly afterward changed her solid 46 to 
Stevenson. Oregon changed 8 from Gray to Stevenson. Missouri made her vote 34 
solid for Stevenson. Kentucky made her 26 solid for Stevenson. Georgia followed 
with her 26. Tennessee changed her 24 to Stevenson. Texas joined the Stevenson 
procession, and those 30 votes nominated him. Minnesota cast her solid vote for 
Stevenson. Mr. Cole of Ohio, at this stage, Stevenson having received more than a 
two-thirds vote, moved that the nomination of Stevenson be made unanimous. Mr. 
Hensel seconded this, and it was carried amid cheers from the throats of those 
assembled under the big canvas canopy. 



o\3^ PREs/oeyv;-^ 



1788 TO 1892, 





^^^!«^$C^^-^^^Vi^,£74/T^. 



GEOI^GE (iJASHINGTiON. 



GEORGE WASHING TON', wlio more llian any other man of ancient or modern 
renown may claim to be called the Father of his Country, was born in the heart 
of a wilderness, in the deptli of midwinter — in Westmoreland county, \"a., on February 
22, 1732, in a house situated near Pope's creek, a small tributary of the Potomac, in a 
parish called by the family name. His mother, Mary Ball, was the second wife of his 
father, Augustine Washington, and was decidedly a woman of great energy of character 
and of a masculine will. During his boyhood the house in which he was born was 
destroyed by fire, after which his father removed to another home, on the Rappa- 
hannock, a short distance below Fredericksburgh, near the Principio Iron Works, of 
which Augustine Washington was himself the agent. In 1743, when he was in his 
twelfth year, his father died, leaving a large landed property to his widow and five 
children, and an estate on the Potomac to his eldest son, Lawrence, which place was 
afterward known as Mount Vernon. 

The family to which George Washington l)elongcd has not yet been satisfactorily 
traced in England. The genealogies accepted by his biogra|)hers. Sparks and Irving, 
and others who have written about him, have recently been proved to be inaccurate. 
His great-grandfather, John Washington, emigrated to Virginia about 1657, with his 
brother Lawrence. 

Of education, Washington had but tlie simplest, the [jrimitive branches of reading, 
writing and arithmetic — with the addition, in his case, which must have been somewhat 
exceptional, of book-keeping and surveying — being all that the local schools of the 
neighborhood afforded in the way of learning. After the army of Count de Rocham- 
beau arrived in the country he gave some attention to the study of French, but never 
attempted afterward to speak or to write it. His orthography was rather defective, a 
very common fault a century ago. He was to have gone away as a midshipman when 
he was fourteen years old, but through his mother's opposition the idea was abandoned. 
He eventually made surveying his profession, and found an opportunity to practice it in 
the employ of Lord Fairfa.x, an English nobleman who had made his home in Virginia. 
When he was nineteen Washington received from the Colonial Assembly of Virginia the 
appointment of Adjutant, with the rank of Major, for his district, military preparations 
having commenced then in anticipation of an Indian war and a probable rujiture with 
France. Immediately after this, however, he accompanied his brother Lawrence to the 
West Indies, where the latter had been ordered for his health. They sailed on Sep- 
tember 15, 1751, for the island of Barbadoes, upon reaching which, after he had scarcely 
been a fortnight on shore, George was atacked by small-pox, being slightly marked for 
life as the result. Lawrence obtaining no relief, he returned to Virginia in the summer 
of 1752, and died there shortly after, at the age of thirty-four, leaving a large fortune 
to an infant daughter, who did not long survive him, the property then reverting by a 
provision of his will to his brother George, who added to it materially liy subsequent 
purchases. 

Washington had five years of military e.xperience during the French and Indian 
War, the reward for such distinguished service as he had rendered being a good- 
natured rebuke from George HI. and a sneer from Horace Walpole. Finding, thus, 
that he was to receive no promotion in the royal army, he tendered his resignation. In 
1753 '^e had, as a special messenger from Governor Dinwiddie to the French ]}ost, 
some five or six hundred miles distant from Williamsburgh, given evidence of pluck 



and endurance, making the journey, without military escort, througli a wilderness and 
over a territory occupied by Indian tribes, and returning, after having successfully 
accomplished his mission, with a journal of his perilous expedition, which, on being 
sent to London and published there, was regarded as a document of no little importance 
for the light which it shed on the designs of the French Government. His defeat of 
Tumonville's party at Great Meadows — afterwards called Fort Necessity — and his 
remarkable escape on the occasion of the event of July 9, 1755, known as " Braddock's 
defeat." when, as a volunteer aide under General Eraddock, he was almost the only 
officer of distinction who escaped from the calamities of the day with life and honor ; 
his establishment with a force of 2000 men at Winchester, and his chief command in 
1758 of the Virginia contingent in the ill-conducted and all but abortive campaign 
under General Forbes against Fort Duquesne, form about the principal features of his 
active life during the French and Indian War. 

In the winter of 1759 he married Mrs. Martha Custis, the wealthy widow of John 
Parke Custis, and then retired to Mount Vernon, where he enlarged the mansion, 
embellished the grounds and added to the estate. 

On April 19, 1775, the appeal to arms was made at Lexington and Concord, and 
on June 15 following, Washington was made Commander-in-Chief of the armies of the 
revolution. He took command of the forces besieging Boston July 3, 1775. The 
evacuation of Boston on March 17, 1776, was the glorious reward of the perseverance 
and skill of the commanding general. Then followed in rapid succession the disasters 
of Long Island, Fort Washington, and of the calamitous retreat through the Jerseys. 
The brilliant coup de main of Trenton, and the substantial success of Princeton, restored 
the drooping courage of the people ; but they were followed by the reverse at Brandy- 
wine, the unsuccessful blow at Germantown, and the terrible winter at Valley Forge. 
The courage and skill of Washington in the summer of 1778, turned a disgraceful com- 
mencement of the day at Monmouth into a substantial victory, but from that time 
forward no brilliant success attended the forces under his immediate command till the 
final blow was struck, with the overwhelming numbers of the combined American and 
French forces at Yorktown. After this great success the war still dragged out a 
lingering existence. More than two years elapsed from the capitulation of Yorktown 
(October, 1781) to the evacuation of New York (November 25, 1783). On December 
23, 1783, Washington, in a parting address of surpassing beauty, resigned his commission 
as Commander-in-Chief of the Army to the Continental Congress sitting at Annapolis. 
He retired immediately to Mount Vernon and resumed his occupation as a farmer and 
3, planter. He was inaugurated as President of the United States April 30, 1789, 
re-elected for a second term in the autumn of 1792, issued a farewell address to the 
country September 17, 1796, and died very suddenly, after but two days' illness, of 
acute laryngitis, contracted through exposure to severe winter weather, on Saturday, 
December 14, 1799, in the sixty-ninth of his age. He was buried at Mount Vernon. 

Washington was six feet two inches high, his person in youth spare, but well- 
proportioned, and never too stout for prompt and easy movement. His hair was 
brown, his eyes blue and far apart, his hands large, his arms uncommonly strong, and 
the muscular development of his frame perfect. He was a bold and graceful horse- 
man, and followed the hounds with eagerness and spirit. He was scrupulously attentive 
to the proprieties of dress and personal appearance. Prudence, firmness, sagacity, 
moderation, an over-ruling judgment, an immovable justice, courage that never faltered, 
patience that never wearied, truth that disdained all artifice, magnanimity without alloy 
— such was his character, possessing fewer inequalities and a rarer union of virtues, than 
perhaps ever fell to the lot of one man. 



(30HN fiDAMS. 



TOHX ADAMS, second I'rcsident of the United States, was horn October 19, 1735 
^ (O. S.), in Braintree, Mass. He was a great-grandson of Henry Adanis, who emi- 
grated from England about 1640. His father was a man of limited means, uniting the 
occupations of shoemaking and farming. John Adanis, however, received a classical 
education from his father, and graduated at Harvard College in 1755. Immediately 
afterward he assumed charge of the grammar school in Worcester, and while there 
studied law under the only lawyer the town [lossessed. In 1758 he was settled in 
Suffolk county, of which Boston was the shire town, and gradually introduced himself 
into practice. In 1764 he married a daughter of the minister of the neighboring town 
of Weymouth, Miss Abigail Smith, the social position of whose family was superior to 
that of his own. Soon after his marriage he entered the field of politics. When the 
Congress of 1774 was formed he was chosen one of the five delegates from Massachu- 
setts, and his visit to Philadelphia on this business was the first occasion of his going 
beyond the limits of New England. 

In 1768 he removed to Boston. In 1770 he was chosen a representative to the 
(ieneral Court. In 1775 ''"^ ^^'^^ appointed again a member of the Continental Congress 
at Philadelphia, having already greatly distinguished himself in the discussions in the 
former Congress of 1774, and by his writings during the year just past, his compositions 
being remarkable for their bold tone of investigation, their resort to first principles, and 
their pointed style. The Congress of 1774 was a mere consulting convention. This 
one of 1775 speedily assumed, or rather had thrust upon it by the unanimous consent 
of the patriots, the exercise of a comprehensive authority, in which supreme executive, 
legislative and, in some cases, judicial functions were united. In this busy scene the 
active and untiring Adams, one of whose distinguishing characteristics was his capacity 
and fondness for business, found ample employment, while his bold and pugnacious 
spirit was not a little excited by the hazards and dignity of the great game in which he 
had come to hold so deep a stake. 

After the assumption by Congress of the expense and control of the military 
operations which New England had begun by laying siege to Boston, .\dams proposed 
Washington for the chief command, a concession intended to secure the good will and 
firm co-operation of Virginia and the Southern Colonies. 

The committee which chiefly engaged Mr. Adams' attention upon his return 
after an interval of absence, in which, while he was at home, he sat as a member of 
the Massachusetts Council, was a committee on fitting out cruisers and on naval affairs 
generally. This committee laid the first foundation of an American navy, the body of 
rules and regulations for which — the basis of our existing naval code — was drawn up 
by Mr. Adams. He was afterwards offered the post of Chief Justice of Massachu- 
setts, accepted it, but resigned in 1777, his duties as a delegate in Congress and his 
general connection with the active life of the revolution compelling it. 

The Declaration of Independence was drawn up by Jefferson, but on Adams 
devolved the task of liattling it through Congress in a three days' debate. Eor eighteen 
months he held the office of Chairman, or President of the War Department, a ])Osition 
of great labor and responsibility. The business of preparing articles of war for the 
government of the army was deputed to a committee composed of Adams and Jeffer- 
son, but Jefferson, according to Adams' account, threw upon him the whole burden, 
not only of drawing up the articles, but of arguing them through Congress, which was 



no small task. Besides his i)residency of the board of war, Mr. Adams was also chair- 
man of the committee upon which dcvoived the decision of ajjpeals in admiralty case:; 
from the State courts. 

Having thus occupied for nearly two years a position which gained him the rejju- 
tation among at least a portion of his colleagues of having " the clearest head and 
firmest heart of any man in Congress," lie was appointed, near the end of the year 
1777, a Commissioner to France to supersede Deane, whom Congress had determined 
to recall. He left I5oston on February 12, 1778, and arrived at Paris April 8, but th( 
alliance with F'rance having already been com])leted, his stay was not long, though 
sufficiently so to effect an arrangement by whicli Franklin was a])pointed sole ambas- 
sador to France, the very great antagonism of views and feeling between the thre« 
original commissioners — F'ranklin, Deane and Arthur Lee— demanding this wise pro- 
vision, Deane's recall not having reconciled the other two. On returning home .Mr 
Adams was soon after made Minister by Congress to treat with Creat Britain for peace 
and commerce, sailing again for France in 1779. 

In 17S0 we find him in Holland with the object of borrowing money there for his 
government, but, owing to a sudden breach between F^ngland and Holland, his labor: 
in this direction were interrupted. He was soon after appointed Minister to Holland, 
but before he could effect much in that capacity he was recalled in Julv, 17S1, tc 
Paris, by a notice that he was needed there in his character of Minister to treat of 
peace. 

In 1785, after many admirable services rendered in his ministerial capacity while 
on the continent, he was made Minister to the Court of St. James, where he arrived in 
May. In 1788, U[)on his soliciting a recall, it was sent out to him accompanied by a 
resolution of Congress conveying the thanks of that body for " the patriotism, perse- 
verance, integrity and diligence " which he had displayed in his ten years' service 
abroad. When the new government came to be organized, lie was nominated and 
elected Vice-President, as all were agreed upon Washington for President. At the 
second presidential election in 1792 he was re-elected by a decided vote over George 
Clinton. The wise policy of neutrality adopted by Washington received the hearty 
concurrence of Adams. While Jefferson left the cabinet to become in nominal retire- 
ment the leader of the opposition, Adams continued as Vice-President to give Wash- 
ington's administration the benefit of his casting vote. 

Mr. Adams was nominated for President in the autumn of 179C, and only secured 
his election over Jefferson, his opponent, by two stray votes cast for him, one in Vir- 
ginia and the other in North Carolina, tributes of revolutionary reminiscences and 
personal esteem. He succeeded to ofifice at a very dangerous and e.xciting crisis of 
affairs, held it for one term only, and immediately on the expiration of his term left 
Washington, and sank suddenly — at a time, too, when his powers of action and inclina- 
tion for it seemed wholly unimpaired — from a leading position in the affairs of his 
country, to one of absolute political insignificance, the only acknowledgment for his 
twenty-five years' services to the nation which he carried with him into his unwelcome 
and mortifying retirement, being that of receiving his letters free of postage for the 
remainder of his life. He died on the fiftieth anniversary of that Declaration of Inde- 
pendence in which he had taken so active a jiart. By a singular coincidence Thom;is 
Jefferson, the framer of that document, expired on the same day, but a few hours in 
advance of his old friend John .\dams. 

John Adams was of a stout, well-knit figure, scarcely above the middle height, 
with a large, round head, a wide forehead and expanded brows. His eve was mild 
and benignant, at times even humorous ; his presence grave and imjiosing on serious 
occasions, but not unbending. His nature was kind, trustful and svmpathetic. 



j^U--^ 








"^h^TZ^ 



©HOMAS (3ePFBIxS0N. 



T^TO^[AS JEFFERSON was born at Shadwells, Albemarle county. Va., April 2, 
1743. He was the son of Col. Peter Jefferson, a planter of high social position, 
and great decision of character, antl of Jane Randolph, daughter of Ishani Randolph, 
of Dungeoness in Cloochland. He received a classical education, fitting him to enter 
the College of William and Mary at Williamsburg at the age of seventeen. He 
remained in college two years, then studied law with George Wythe, and began i)ractice 
at the bar of the general court in 1767. He was also in attendance in the county 
courts of his district. On January i, 1772, lie was married to Mrs. Martha Skelton, 
widow of Bathurst Skelton, and daughter of John Wayles, a lawyer of influence in 
Charles City. Jefferson's wife was not only beautiful, and possessed of graceful man- 
ners, but an heiress as well, as she had inherited 135 slaves and 40,000 acres of land, 
the value of the whole lieing about equal to Jefferson's own patrimony. Jefferson's 
practice adding greatly to his income, the young couple were very well to do. 

Jefferson secured the reputation cpiite early in his career of having a " masterly 
pen." Having been appointed in the spring of 1773, by the House of Burgesses, as a 
member of the " Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry for the Dissemination of 
Intelligence between the Colonies," and having drawn up a pajjer to serve for instruc- 
tion to the delegates to the Oeneral Congress of 1774, which the Committee of Corre- 
sjjondence had been directed to jiropose to all the colonies, he placed himself before 
the public as a courageous and uncompromising advocate of constitutional freedom 
and, above all, as a writer of unusual eloipience and accomplishment. His paper of 
instructions was printed and ])ublished by the burgesses under the title of " A Summary 
View of the Rights of British America." It was a bold, elaborate and elocjuent 
exposition of the right of the colonies to resist taxation, and contained the germ of 
the subsequent Declaration of Independence. 

In the second convention of 1775, having been placed upon a committee to report 
a plan of defense, he drew up a plan, and the convention then proceeding to elect 
delegates to Congress, Jefferson was chosen as the alternate of Peyton Randolph, who 
might be retained by his office of President of the House in Virginia. Early in June 
of 1776, having been unanimously pressed to undertake the draft of the Declaration of 
Independence, by his associates of the committee of which he was chairman, this 
committee having been esjiecially appointed by Congress for the purpose, he complied, 
Franklin and .\dams only making two or three verbal alterations in it. It was laid 
before Congress on June 2S, and after a hot debate, and a powerful opposition greet- 
ing it on the part of some members, it was finally agreed to on July 4, with amend- 
ments. This paper has since secured a renown more extended than that of any other 
State paper in existence. 

When Jefferson drew up the epitaph to be inscribed upon his tomb, he added to 
the words, "author of the Declaration of Independence," those others, " and of the 
statute of Virginia for religious freedom." This mention of the statute of Virginia 
refers directly to the work of the committee of revision on the Constitution of 
Virginia, of which he was the head. For more than two years was he employed on this 
work with his confreres, and it was undoubtedly an extremely arduous task when all 
its features are considered. To Jefferson was allotted the common law and statutes to 
the 4th of James I. ; and he ajiplied himself with characteristic zeal to the required 
revision. To the more important bills which he brought in there was a stroni; and deter- 



mined opposition. In his own words : " I considered four of these bills as forming a 
system by which every fibre would be eradicated of ancient or future aristocracy. The 
repeal of the laws of entail would prevent the accumulation and perpetuation of wealth 
in select families. The abolition of primogeniture, and ecjual partition of inheritances, 
removed the feudal and unnatural distinctions which made one member of every family 
rich, and all the rest poor. The restoration of the rights of conscience relieved the 
people from taxation for the support of a religion not theirs ; for the establishment was 
truly the religion of the rich." The latter reference is to the bill " for establishing 
religious freedom." 

Anyone who will recall the condition of V'irginian society at this period, essen- 
tially aristocratic as it was, and with all those prejudices in favor of the laws of entail 
and primogeniture which obtained in the mother country, can imagine the storm that 
was raised by the advocacy of such radical changes in the social and religious struc- 
ture of the Commonrt-ealth. The fight lasted for years, but the bills eventually passed 
and Jefferson triumphed. 

The reorganization was complete. 

Jefferson was also the author of measures for the establishment of courts of law, 
and of a complete system of elementary and collegiate education. In 1777, while a 
member of the House, he strongly opposed the alleged scheme for making Patrick Henry 
dictator, and in 1778 he proposed and procured the passage of a bill forbidding the 
future importation of slaves. In the spring of 1779 he was busily employed in amelio- 
rating the condition of the British prisoners at Charlottesville, and on June i of that 
year he was elected Governor of Virginia. Taking his seat in Congress in the 
winter session of 1783, he, in the following session, proposed and secured the 
adoption of the present system of United States coinage, doing away with the old 
£^ s. (/., and substituting the dollar and its subdivisions down to the hundredth part, tc 
which, in order to describe its value, he gave the name of cent. 

In May, 1784, he was made Minister to England. In 1785 he was appointed Min' 
ister to France. In 1789 he was made Secretary of State in Washington's Cabinet. 
On December 31, 1793, he resigned. He became Vice-President under John Adams 
in 1797, and consequently took the chair as President of the Senate. 

Jefferson took his seat as President of the United States .March 4, iSoi, at Wash- 
ington, to which the Capitol had been removed but a few months before, and 
Aaron Burr was made Vice-President. Jefferson was re-elected with George Clinton 
as Vice-President for the term beginning March 4, 1805. In 181 9 he superin- 
tended the erection of the University of Virginia, and in the same year was chosen its 
rector. He died on July 4, 1826, a few hours before John Adams, a little past mid- 
day on the same day, and nearly at the same hour when, just half a century before, 
these two men had attached their signatures to the Declaration of Independence. As 
midnight approached on July 3 he was evidently dying, but retained his memory and 
muttered : " This is the Fourth of July." While at college he is described as having 
been ardent and impulsive in demeanor, with a tall, thin and angular person, ruddy 
comple.xion, red hair and bright gray eyes flecked with hazel. He was radically a ' 
Democrat, and held as a doctrine that no man is better than another. 



(3amss Qadison. 



JAMES MADISON, the fourth President of the United States, was born at King 
George, Va., March 1 6, 1751. His father was James -Madison, of Orange, a 
phintcr of ample means and high standing, who was descended from John Madison, 
an Englishman, who settled in Virginia about the year 1653. His mother's maiden 
name was Eleanor Conway. Mr. Madison graduated at Princeton College, New- 
Jersey, in 1771, but remained there until the spring of 1772, pursuing a course of 
reading under Dr. Witherspoon, the president. His habits of application were so 
close at this period, that his health became seriously affected, and seems never to have 
been fully restored. In 1772 he returned to Virginia, and commenced a course of 
legal stud)-, with which he mingled a large amount of miscellaneous reading, and study 
in theology, philosophy and belles-lettres. His attention was particularly directed to 
the first, and he thoroughly explored all the evidences of the Christian religion. From 
these pursuits he was soon diverted by public affairs. In the local contest for religious 
toleration, -Mr. Madison distinguished himself by his zeal and activity in defense of the 
Baptists particularly, who, with other non-conformists, had been subjected to violent 
persecutions. In the spring of 1776 he was elected a member of the Virginia con- 
vention from the county of Orange, and procured the passage of the substance of an 
amendment to the declaration of rights by George Mason, which struck out the old 
term toleration, and inserted a broader exposition of religious rights. In the same 
year he was made a member of the General .\ssembly, but lost his election in 1777, 
by his refusal to treat the voters, and from the general want of confidence in his 
powers of oratory. His extreme modesty had prevented his venturing himself in 
debate before his removal to the Council of State in 1777, to which the Legislature 
elected him in November of that year, but the subsequent training he received in 
Congress, then consisting of a few members, and to which he was elected in the winter 
of 1779, taking his seat in March, 1780, gave him, in the language of Jefferson, "a 
habit of self-jjossession which placed at ready coi-ni-nand the rich resources of his 
luminous and discriminating mind, and of his extensive information, and rendered 
him the first of every assembly afterward of which he became a i-nember. Never 
wandering from his subject into vain declamation, but pursuing it closely in language 
pure, classical, copious, soothing always the feelings of his adversaries by civilities and 
softness of expression, he rose to the eminent station he afterward held in the great 
National Convention of 1787; and in that of Virginia which followed, he sustained the 
new Constitution in all its parts, bearing off the palm against the logic of (leorge 
Mason, and the fervid declamation of Mr. Henry. ^Vith these consummate powers 
•was united a pure and spotless virtue, which no calumny ever attempted to sully." 
From his earliest years Mr. Madison was a hard student. His meinory was singularly 
tenacious, and what he once clearly discerned became assimilated, and was ever after 
retamed. He thus laid up that great store of learning which, in the conventions 
of 17S7 and 178S especially, proved so effective, .\fter Washington no public man of 
his time was more widely respected and beloved. The public confidence in and 
respect for his honesty and singleness of aiiii toward the good of the country, ripened 
into an affectionate attachment. His bearing .and address were characterized by 
simplicity and modesty. He resembled a quiet student, rather than the head of a 
great nation. He was somewhat taciturn in public, but when he conversed his tone 




■/i^^^iyi.-^ z^CC A^^--^^^ ^'^^ 



was weighty arnl iinpressive. It was often naked, abstract reasoning, mild, sini])lc and 
lucid, but summing up long trains of thought. 

In 1783, he zealously advocated the measures proposed to establish a system of 
general revenue to pay the expenses of the war, and as chairman of the committee to 
which the subject was referred, prepared an able address to the State in support of 
the plan, whicli was adopted by Congress, and received the warm approval of 
Washington. .\ striking proof of the value which the people of Virginia attached to 
his services is exhibited by the fact that the law rendering him ineligible after three 
years' service in Congress was repealed, in order that he might sit during a fourth. 
On his return to \'irginia, he was elected to the Legislature, and took his seat in 1784. 
In this body he inaugurated the measures relating to a thorough revision of the old 
statutes, and supported the bills introduced by the revisers, Jefferson, Wythe and 
Pendleton, on the subject of entails, primogeniture and religious freedom. His 
greatest service at tiiis time was the iirei)aration, after the adjournment of the 
Assembly, of a " Memorial ami Remonstrance " against the project of a general assess- 
ment for the support of religion, which caused the complete defeat of the measure 
against which it was directed. .\t a convention of delegates from all the States, held 
at Philadelijhia in May, 1787, Madison represented Virginia. The result of this 
convention was the abrogation of the old system of commercial regulations, and the 
formation of the Constitution of the United States. Madison was prominent in 
advocating the Constitution, and took a leading ])art in the debates, of which he kepi 
private notes, since published by order of Congress. He took his seat as a Representa- 
tive in Congress in April, 17S9. Alexander Hamilton was at the head of the Treasury 
Department, and Madison was obliged either to support the great series of financial 
measures initiated by the Secretary, or distinctly abandon his former associate, and 
range himself on the side of the Rejiublican opposition. He adopted the latter 
course. He accordingly opj)Osed the funding bill, the national bank, and Hamilton's 
system of finance generally. His affection for Washington, and long friendship for 
Hamilton, rendered such a step peculiarly disagreeable to a man of his amiable and 
kindly disposition. But the tone of his opposition did not alienate his friends. He 
always retained the cordial regard of AVashington. He became thoroughly identified 
with the Republicans in Congress, and in 1792 was their avowed leader. The most 
famous of Mr. Madison's political writings, which were very voluminous, was his 
"Report" in defense of his resolutions of 1798-99, in which the determination of the 
Virginia .\ssembly to defend the Constitutions of the United States, and of the States, 
was declared, and in which the purpose of the Assembly to resist all attempts to enlarge 
the authority of the Federal compact by forced constructions of general clauses, as tend- 
ing to consolidation, the destruction of the liberties of the States, and finally to a 
monarchy, was also made known. Madison was Secretary of State during Jefferson's 
entire administration, and his opinions upon public affairs closely agreed witli those of 
the President. He took his seat as President of the United States on March 4, 1809. 
On March 4, 1813, Mr. Madison entered upon his second term of administration. 
On March 4, 1817, his long official connection with the affairs of the nation terminated, 
and he retired to his farm at Montpelier in Virginia, where he died on June 28, 1836. 





^-^ 



(SaMES fflONIxOE. 



JAMES MONROE, liftli ['resident of the United States, was born in Westmoreland 
county, Virginia, April 28, 1758. His father was Spence Monroe, a planter, 
descended from Captain Monroe, an officer in the army of Charles I., who emigrated 
with other cavaliers to Virginia in 1652. James Monroe was educated at William and 
Mary College, which he left in 1776 to enter the army as a cadet. Soon afterward he 
was commissioned lieutenant, and took an active jiart in the campaign on the Hudson. 
In the attack on Trenton, at the head of a small detachment, he captured one of the 
British batteries. On this occasion he received a ball in the shoulder, and was 
promoted to a captaincy. As aide-de-camp to Lord Stirling, with the rank of Major, 
he served in the campaigns of 1777 and 1778, and distinguished himself in the battles 
of Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth. By accepting the place of aide to Lord 
Stirling, he lost his rank in the regular line. Failing in his efforts to re-enter the army 
as a commissioned officer, he returned to Virginia and began to study law, under the 
direction of Thomas Jefferson, then Governor of the State. In 1782 he was elected to 
the Assembly of Virginia, from the county of King George, and was appointed by that 
body, although but twenty-three years of age, a member of the executive council. 
In 1783 he was chosen a delegate to Congress for three years, and took his seat on 
December 13. In 17S5 he married a daughter of Lawrence Kortwright, of New York, 
a lady celebrated for her beauty and acconi]jlishments. Having served out his term, and 
being ineligible for the next three years, Monroe settled in Fredericksburg, Virginia. 
In 1787 he was re-elected to the General Assembly, and in 1788 was chosen a delegate to 
the Virginia convention to decide upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution. He 
was one of the minority who opposed the instrument as submitted, being apprehensive 
that, without amendment, it would confer too much power upon the general government. 
In 1790 he was chosen United States Senator. In the Senate he became a prominent 
representative of the Anti-Federal party, and acted with it until his term expired in 1794. 
In May of that year, he was made Minister to France, where he was received with 
enthusiastic demonstrations of respect ; but owing to his marked exhibition of sympathy 
with the French Republic (which displeased the administration at home through the 
apparent tendency of his course, in its estimation, to throw serious obstacles in the way 
of a proposed treaty with England), he was recalled in August, 1796. On his return to 
America, his publication of his " View of the Conduct of the Executive in the Foreign 
Affairs of the United States," served but to widen the breach lietween himself and the 
administration, though with both Wasliington and Jay he remained on good terms. 
He became the hero of the Anti-Federalists, and was at once elected Governor of Virginia, 
which office he held from 1799 to 1802. At the close of his term, Jefferson then being 
President, he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary to the French government, to 
negotiate, in conjunction with the Minister Resident, Mr. Livingston, for the purchase 
of Louisiana, or a right of depot for the United States on the Mississippi. By the 
joint efforts of Messrs. Monroe and Livingston, a treaty was signed in 1803, by which 
France gave up to the United States, for a pecuniary consideration, the vast region 
then known as Louisiana. 

Monroe went from Paris to London, where he was accredited to the Court of 
St. James, and subsequently went to Si)ain, in order to negotiate for the cession of 
Florida to the United States. In this he failed, and in 1806 he was recalled to England 
to act with Mr. Pinckney in further negotiation for the protection of neutral rights. 



Jefferson, however, was so dissatisfied with this treaty, owing to the absence of any 
provision against the impressment of American seamen, and the failure to secure, by its 
articles, any indemnity for loss that the Americans had incurred in the seizure of their 
goods and vessels, that he would not send it to the Senate. Monroe returned home in 
1807, and at once drew up an elaborate defense of his political conduct. 

Again did Mr. Monroe receive a token of popular approbation when, in 181 1, 
he was chosen for the second time Governor of Virginia, in which position he remained 
till called by Madison a short time afterward to accept the portfolio of Secretary of 
State, which he held for the next six years, from 1811 to 1817. In 1814 to 1815, he 
also acted as Secretary of War. While he was a member of the Cabinet of Madison, 
hostilities were begun between the United States and England. The public buildings 
in Washington were burned, and it was only by the most strenuous measures that the 
progress of the British was interrupted. Mr. Monroe gained much popularity by the 
measures that he took for the protection of the Capital, and for the enthusiasm with 
which he prosecuted the war measures of the government. 

Monroe had held almost every important station except that of President, to which 
a politician could aspire. With the tradition of those days, which regarded experience 
in political affairs a qualification for an exalted station, it was most natural that Monroe 
should become a candidate for the presidency. Eight years previously his fitness for 
the office had been discussed. Now, in 18 16, at the age of fifty-nine years, almost 
exactly the age at which Jefferson and Madison attained the same position, he was 
elected President of the United States, continuing in office till 1825, his second elec- 
tion in 1 82 1 being made with almost complete unanimity, but one electoral vote being 
given against him. John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, William H. Crawford 
and William Wirt were members of his Cabinet during his entire administration. The 
principal subjects that engaged the attention of the President were the defenses of the 
Atlantic seaboard, the promotion of internal improvements, the conduct of the Semi- 
nole War, the acquisition of Florida, the Missouri compromise, and the resistance to 
foreign interference in American affairs, formulated in a declaration that is called the 
" Monroe doctrine." Two social events marked the beginning and the end of his 
administration : First, his ceremonious tour through the principal cities of the North and 
South; and second, the national reception of the Marquis de Lafayette, who came to 
this country as the nation's guest. At the close of Monroe's second term as President, 
he retired to private life, and during the seven years that remained to him, resided 
part of the time at Oak Hill, Loudon county, Va, and part of the time in the city 
of New York. He accepted the office of regent of the University of Virginia in 1826, 
with Jefferson and Madison, and was asked to serve on the electoral ticket of Virginia 
in 1828, but declined on the ground that an ex-President should not be a party 
leader, but consented to act as a local magistrate however, and to become a member 
of the Virginia Constitutional Convention. One idea is consistently represented by 
Monroe from the beginning to the end of his public life — the idea that America is for 
Americans, that the territory of the United States is to be protected and enlarged, 
and that foreign intervention will never be permitted. In his early youth Monroe 
enlisted for the defense of American independence. He was one of the first to perceive 
the importance of free navigation upon the Mississippi; he negotiated with France and 
Spain for the acquisition of Louisiana and Florida; he gave a vigorous impulse to the 
second war with Great Britain in defense of our maritime rights, when the rights of a 
neutral power were endangered; and he enunciated a dictum against foreign interference, 
which has now the force of international law. In person he was tall and well formed, 
with a light complexion and blue eyes. He died in New York, July 4, 1831. 



(30HN QUmCoY fiDAMS. 



TOliN QUINCV ADAMS, sixth I'l-csidcnt of the Uniled Stales, the eldest son of 
'-' President John Adams, was born in Braintree, Mass., July it, 1767. He was 
named after his great-grandfather, John Quincy. In hiseleventh year he accompanied 
his father to France. He returned in about a year and a half, teaching, on his home- 
ward voyage, the i)rinciples of the English language to his fellow passengers, 1 )e la 
Luzerne, the French Ambassador to the United States, and his secretary, M. Marbois, 
who were in raptures with his knowledge and general accomplishments. "' Your son," 
said M. Marbois, to the boy's distinguished father, " teaches us more than you ; he has 
(>(>i>it </e grace, f>(>i>it if c/ogfs. He shows us no mercy, and makes us no compliments. 
We must have Mr. John." Character is very early developed, and John (Quincy 
Adams retained much of this same style of teaching to the end of his life. After 
remaining at home three months and a half, he sailed for France, accom])anying his 
father on his second diplomatic mission to Europe. He was [ilaced at school in Paris, 
after his arrival there in February, 1780, but left for Holland with his father in August. 
After some months' tuition at a school in .Vmsterdam, he was sent, about the end of 
the year, to the University of Leyden. His father's private secretary of legation, 
Francis Dana (afterwards Chief Justice of Massachusetts), having been ajipointed Min- 
ister to Russia, he took with him the boy, Ji)hn Quincy Adams, then in his fifteenth 
year. Having discharged the duties of this position for fourteen months to Mr. Dana's 
entire satisfaction, the latter not having succeeded in getting recognized as Minister, 
young Adams left St. Petersburgh, and traveling back alone, returned leisurely through 
Sweden and Denmark, and by Hamburg and Bremen, to the Hague, where he resumed 
his studies. In October, 1783, the treaty of peace having been signed, he attended his 
father on his first visit to England. Returning with him, he spent the year 1784 in 
Paris, where the whole family was now collected. His father having been appointed 
Minister to England, he went with the family to London, but soon after, with a view to 
complete his education, he returned home to Massachusetts. He entered the junior 
class at Harvard College in 1786, and graduating in 1788, immediately entered the office 
of Theophilus Parsons, who was subsequently Chief Justice of Massachusetts. He 
remained there three years. In 1791 he was admitted to the bar, when he opened a 
law office in Boston. In the course of four years, he gradually obtained i)ractice 
enough to pay his expenses. He did not, however, confine Iiimself entirely to the law. 
He published three series of articles in the " Boston Sentinel " — one, a reply to some 
portions of Tom Paine's " Rights of Man ;" the second, a defense of Washington's 
policy of neutrality; the third, a review of the conduct of Genet, the French .\mbassa- 
dor, in relation to the same subject. These writings drew attention to him, and in 
May, 1794, Washington appointed him Minister to the Hague. Everything was in such 
confusion there, owing to the French invasion, that he would fain have returned after 
a few months' stay, had it not been for the remonstrances of Washington, wh(j pre- 
dicted for him a distinguished diplomatic career. 

Upon a visit to London in 1795, he met a young l.uly whom he afterward married 
on July 27, 1797. She was the daughter of Mr. Joshua Johnson, the .American Consul 
at London, who was himself a brother of Thomas Johnson, one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence, and a judge of the United States Supreme Court. The 
Adamses had made, in 1779, the acipiaintance of the Johnsons at Nantes, where Mr. 
Johnson was, at the time, a merchant in business there. Previous to his marriage, and 
shortly before the close of Washington's administration, John (,)uin(:y .Adams had been 




J, f}, jiLoAvvi 



iiKule Minister to Portugal ; but his father, on becoming President, changed his desti- 
nation to BerHn. In thus promoting his own son, John Adams acted I)y the written 
advice of Washington, who expressed his decided opinion that yfuing Adams was the 
ablest person then in the American diplomatic service, and that merited promotion 
ought not to be withheld from him merely on account of his being the President's son. 
He arrived in Berlin shortly after his marriage, in the autumn of 1797. In 1798 he 
received an additional commission to negotiate a treaty of conmierce with Sweden. 
On the accession of Mr. Jefferson he was recalled, but not until he had succeeded in 
negotiating a treaty of commerce with Prussia. Upon his return he again opened a 
law office in Boston. In 1802 he was elected to the Massachusetts .Senate, and the 
next year was chosen a Senator in Congress from Massachusetts. He owed this [josi- 
tion to the Federal ixirty of Massachusetts, and for four years he continued to sustain 
their views; but on the question of the embargo recommended by Jefferson he separ- 
ated from them. .\ warm controversy wage<l witli jjolitical opponents on this question 
of the embargo resulted in his retirement to private life for a time. 

Immediately after Madison's accession to the presidency, Mr. .\dams was nomi- 
nated Minister to Russia. The Senate at first refused to confirm the nomination, being 
not yet satisfied of the e.xpediency of opening diplomatic relations in that (piarter. A 
few months after, however, the nomination being renewed, it was confirmed. The 
disputes and collisions between Great Britain and the United States, wiiirh finally 
terminated in the war of 1812, afforded .Mr. Adams an opi)ortunity to induce the 
Emperor of Russia to act as mediator; but Great Britain refused to consider Russia's 
offer, proposing instead an independent negotiation at London or Gothenburg, for 
which Ghent was afterwards substituted. Peace being established December 24, 1814, 
Mr. Adams was soon after resident American Minister at London, having, on his way 
through Paris, witnessed the return of Napoleon from Elba, and the brief emjMre of 
the hundred days. Upon the accession of Mr. Monroe to the presidency, Mr. Adams 
was offered the post of Secretary of State, and returned to accept it after an absence 
of eight years. The treaty with regard to the boundaries of Florida and Louisiana, 
and the claims of Americi on Spain for commercial depredations, was his principal 
achievement while Secret; ry. Mr. .\dams entered upon the presidency March 4, 1825, 
with Calhoun as Vice-President and Clay as Secretary of State. Ui)on the conclusion 
of his term he retired to Quincy, where he remained until he entered Congress again, 
December, 1831, where he represented his district for seventeen years. During this 
long Congressional career he made himself eminent in many ways— as the chatiipion 
and guardian of the right of petition; as the representative of the great party of North- 
ern ideas and sentiments; and as the superior in acquired knowledge, whether by 
looks or personal enperience, of his fellow members, as he was also their sujierior in 
capacity for application and powers of endurance. Compared with his father, |ohn 
Quincy Adams had more learning perhaps, but John Adams had much more genius. 
John Quincy Adams wrote with great fluency, but he lacked altogether that idiomatic 
elegance, force and simplicity .so conspicuous in his father. His style is swelling, 
verbose, inflated, rhetorical. He lacked also, though not without powers of sarcasm] 
the wit and fancy which sparkled in his father's writings, and still more, that spirit of 
philosophical generalization into which John Adams constantly fell, but which was 
totally foreign to the intellectual constitution and habits of the son. In energy, spirit, 
firmness and indomitable courage John Quincy Adams was his father's equal; in self- 
command, in political prudence, and even perhajjs in capacity for hard work, his 
superior. The brilliant [leriod of his career was toward its close. The longer he lived 
the higher he rose, and he died as such men prefer to die, still an admired and trusted 
champion, with harness on his back and spear in hand. 



flNDI^BW (3A6I(S0N. 



A NDRl'.W JACKSON, scxctuh I'rtsidcnt of the United States, was born in the 
^^ W'axiiaw Settlement, N. C, Man:h 15, 1767. His [larents were Scotch-lrisii, and 
emigrated from Carrickfergus, Ireland, in 1765, and settled on Twelve-mile Creek, a 
branch of the Catawba river. They had been very poor at home. Little is known of 
Jackson's childhood. During the trying year of 1780-81 he lost both his only brother 
and his mother, and t'ound himself perfectly destitute, being obliged to labor hard for a 
subsistence. He worked in a saddler's shop, and taught school, and before he had 
completed his eighteenth year he began the study of law at Salisbury, N. C. He was 
licensed to practice before he was twenty. In 178S he was appointed solicitor, or publi<- 
prosecutor of the Western District of North Carolina, embracing what is now the State 
of Tennessee. He arrived at Nashville in the autumn, and immediately entered upon 
an active career. His i)ractice was large, he had to travel much, and made twenty-two 
journeys in seven years between Nashville and Jonesborough, 280 miles, always at the 
risk of his life, owing to the numbers and hostility of the Indians. In the simimer of 
1 791 he married Mrs. Rachel Robards, a daughter of Colonel John Donelson of Vir- 
ginia, one of the founders of Tennessee. 

lackson became a District .\ttorney of Tennessee when that country was made a 
federal territorv ; and when the territory became a State, in 1796, he was a man of 
some wealth, owning some land. He was chosen one of the five members from David- 
son county of the convention which met at Knoxville, January 11, 1796, to make a 
constitution for the new State, and he was appointed on the committee which drafted 
that instrument. 

In the autumn of 1796 he was elected to represent the State in the pojudar branch 
of Congress. He entered the House December 5, 1796, when Washington was on the 
eve of retirement. Jackson belonged to the Republican (afterward Democratic) party^ 
then forming under the lead of Thotnas Jefferson, who had just been elected Vice- 
President. He was made a member of the Senate in 1797, owing to the great popularity 
he attained with his constituents by his radically democratic attitude towards the 
various questions w'hich came up for disposition during the session he was in the 
House of Representatives ; but nothing is known of his senatorial career, so far as it 
appears, Jackson never making a remark, or casting a vote as a Senator. In .\pril, 
1798, after having returned to Tennessee on leave, he resigned his seat. He was 
elected a Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee by the Legislature, at a salary of 
$600 a year, and held courts in various parts of the State, but none of his decisions 
remain. 

In 1801 he was elected a Major General of militia. In 1812, when war was 
declared against England, (ieneral Jackson promptly tendered his services and those 
of 2500 men of his division of Tennessee militia to the national government, and the 
offer was as promptly ac( epted ; but it was not until October 21 that the government 
requested Governor Blount to send 1500 men to New Orleans. Jackson appointed 
December 10 for the meeting of the troops at Nashville. A force of infantry and 
cavalry, 2070 strong, was organized, and on January 7, 1813, the infantry embarked, 
while the cavalry marched across the country. On February 15 the little army assem- 
bled at Natchez, where it remained by direction of General Wilkinson. At the close of 
March Jackson received an order from the Secretary of War to dismiss his corps, but 
he ( (inducted his force back to Tennessee before disbanding it. It was on this man h 



that the soldiers gave him the name of " Hickory," because of his toughness, and in 
time this was changed to "Old Hickory." Jackson greatly distinguished himself dur- 
ing the Creek war, 1813-14, and through his efforts finally put an end to the power 
of the Indian race in North America. Jackson's victories settled forever the long 
quarrel between the white man and the red man. Having thus established for himself 
a national reputation, he secured his reward in being made a Major General in the 
United States army, and became the acknowledged military leader in the southwestern 
part of the Union, various circumstances having placed him in a position to which six 
other generals had claims. The brilliant successes subsequently of Jackson's Louisiana 
campaign made him still a greater favorite throughout the country. The English 
preparations for a grand attack on the Southwest caused Jackson to leave for Mobile, 
the objective point towards which their first blow was aimed. Florida was then, in 
1814, a Spanish province, but the British used it as if it were their own ; and from 
Pensacola, the best harbor on the gulf, they organized expeditions against the United 
States, and aided the Indians. It was the rendezvous of their forces, and the Spaniards 
had neither the power nor the disposition to prevent this abuse of neutral territory. 
Jackson's seizure of Pensacola and his record at New Orleans — in fact, his entire man- 
agement of the campaign — won the plaudits of even the enemy, who admitted his merits 
in the strongest language. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Southern 
Division of the United States in April, 1815, and received the thanks of Congress. 

The Seminole war, which broke out towards the close of 1817, afforded Jackson 
an opportunity for another success. 

In 1819 he made a visit to the North, going as far as New York, and being every- 
where well received. The government of New York city employed Vanderlyn to paint 
his portrait. When Spain ceded Florida to the United States, Jackson was appointed 
Governor of that territory, March 10, 1821 ; he took possession of it July 18, but held 
office only a few months, owing to some complications arising with a portion of Con- 
gress, from a dispute he had with Colonel Callava, late Spanish Governor of Florida. 
Afterwards President Monroe offered Jackson the post of Minister to Mexico, which 
he refused. In 1823 the Tennessee Legislature elected him a United States Senator, 
and nominated him for the Presidency. In the ensuing presidential election of 1824, 
Jackson received ninety-nine electoral votes, eighty-four being cast for John Quincy 
Adams, forty-one for Wm. H. Crawford, and thirty-seven for Henry Clay. No candi- 
date having received a majority, the choice devolved upon the House of Representatives, 
and Adams was elected ; but the entire opposition to the administration of Adams 
supported him for the Presidency in 1828, and he was this time victorious, receiving 
178 electoral votes, while only eighty-three were cast for Adams. The contest which 
thus resulted was one of the most bitter in American history. 

Jackson was re-elected in 1832. Both of Jackson's terms were stormy ones, the 
" bank war," which had raged with such unusual vigor during the four years of his 
first term, being renewed with all its old-time fervor throughout his last term of office- 
His foreign diplomacy was, however, very successful. Useful commercial treaties were 
made with several countries, and were renewed with others. Indemnities for spolia- 
tions on American commerce were obtained from France, Spain, Naples and Portugal, 
and the most amicable relations were sustained with England. During his second 
term the national debt was extinguished, the Cherokees were removed from Georgia, 
and the Creeks from Florida, the original number of States was doubled after the admis- 
sion of Arkansas and Michigan into the Union, and the gold currency was greatly 
increased. He died at his residence, " The Hermitage," near Nashville, Tennessee, 
June 8, 1845. His chief intellectual gifts were energy and intuitive judgment. 



fflAI^TIN UaN BUI^EN. 



/Wl AR'l'IN VAN BUREN, the eighth President of the United States, was born at 
''' Kinderhook, Columbia county, N. Y., December 5, 1782. His lather was a 
tanner, and Martin's early education was acquired at the academy of his native 
village. He began the study of law at the age of fourteen, was admitted to the bar 
in 1803, when he was twenty-one, the last year of his studies having been passed in 
the office of W. P. Van Ness, in the city of New York. He had served at the age of 
eighteen as a delegate in a nominating convention of tlie Rejiublicans, or, as it was later 
called, the Democratic party. 

In 1808 he was appointed by llie (iovernor Surrogate of Columljia county. In 
1812 he was elected to the Senate of the State, and in that body voted for electors 
l)ledged to support De Witt Clinton for President of the United States. He was an 
earnest advocate of the war of 1812-13. In 1815 he became Attorney-General of the 
State, and in i8i6 he was again a member of the Senate, the two offices being held to- 
gether. In 1818, having long since become estranged from De Witt Clinton, Mr. Van 
Buren set on foot a new organization of the Democratic party in the State. He became 
the ruling spirit of a coterie of able politicians, among whom were H. F. Butler, W. L. 
Marcy and Edwin Croswell, all of whom were afterward prominent, and by whom the 
political control of tlie State was uninterruptedly exercised for more than twenty years. 
In 1819 he, was removed from the office of Attorney-General by the Clintonian council 
of appointment. In 1820 he advocated the re-election of Rufus King to the U. S. 
Senate, and concurred in the legislative resolution instructing the Senators and 
Representatives of the State in Congress, to resist the admission of Missouri as a Slave 
State. In February, 182 1, defeating both Clintonians and Federalists in the Legislature, 
he was chosen to the United States Senate, and a few months later was elected to 
represent the county of Otsego, in the convention to revise the State constitution. In 
1824 he advocated the election of Mr. Crawford to the presidency, and became a leader 
in the opposition to Mr. John (^uincy Adams, the successful candidate. In 1827 he 
was re-elected to the United States Senate, but resigned that office on being chosen 
Governor of New York to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Clinton in 1828. 
As (iovernor he proposed the safety fund banking system. 

In March, 1829, he became Secretary of State in the administration of President 
Jackson, but resigned on April 7, 1831, for the reason that circumstances beyond his 
control had placed him before the covintry as a candidate for the presidency, a posi- 
tion, in his judgment, incomjiatible with the proper discharge of the duties of a cabinet 
minister. Ap[)ointed Minister to England, he arrived in that country in Septemljer ; 
but his nomination to the office, submitted to the Senate in December, was rejected by 
that body after an animated debate, in which Messrs. Clay and Webster, Whig leaders, 
were seconded by the friends of Mr. Calhoun, then A^ice-President. 

The grounds of the objection were stated to be, that while Secretary of State, Mr. 
Van Buren had instructed Mr. McLane, United States Minister to England, to beg 
from that country, as a favor, certain concessions in regard to trade with her colonies 
in the West Indies, which he should have demanded as a right ; that, in fact, he had 
taken the side of England in that matter against the United States ; and, finally, that 
he had carried our domestic party contests, and their results, into di])lomatic 




O l^T^t^^^ 



^-^ 



negotiations with foreign countries. This event occasioned much excitement, esj)e- 
cially among the members of the Democratic tjarty, who regarded it as a mere political 
persecution. 

It was foUoweil on .May 22, 1832, by the nomination of Mr. \'an ]>uren for tlie 
vice-jiresidency by the same Democratic National Convention which nominated (ieneral 
Jackson for re-election to tlie presidency, and in the subseipient election Mr. Van 
Huren received the electoral votes of all the States which voted for Oeneral Jackson, 
with the e.xception of Pennsylvania, whose electors cast their suffrages for William 
W'ilkins. Mr. \'an Buren tluis became President of the Senate, which a few months 
before had condemned him ; and when he left that office all parties agreed that he h.id 
discharged its functions with dignity, courtesy and impartiality. 

It had long been known that he was the favorite candidate of his party for the 
station which President Jackson was to vacate in March, 1836. The National Conven- 
tion which met at Raltimore on May 20, 1835, unanimously nominated him for the 
presidency, and in the ensuing election he received from fifteen States 170 electoral 
votes, while his principal antagonist. General Harrison, received 73, Mr. Hugh L. 
White 26, and Mr. Webster 14. 

The divorce of the government from the banks, anil the exclusive " receipt and pay- 
ment of gold and silver in ail publii- transactions" — that is to say, for the independent 
treasury — was the measure by which his administration is especially distinguished, 
and l)eing finally passed by both Houses of (!ongress, became a law on June 30, 1840. 

The canvass preliminary to the j)residential election of 1840, was l)eguu uncom- 
monly early, and with unwonted energy, by the opposition. Indeed, the public meetings 
held in the large cities during the sjiring and summer of 1839, where, under the lead of 
prominent Whig statesmen, the policy of the President and his party was denounced as 
the source of the jjrevailing commercial troubles, were but the beginning of a vast 
movement to transfer the executive government into the hands of the Whigs. Never 
in the political history of the United States was a canvass conducted amid such absorb- 
ing public excitement. The result was the discomfiture of the Democrats in every 
State, except Alabama, 'Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, Virginia and 
South Carolina. Mr. \'an Buren received only 60 electoral votes, while Ceneral 
Harrison had 234. 

From the White House Mr. Van P.uren withdrew to his estate at Kindcrhook, to 
appear a month afterwards as an assistant at the funeral honors paid to General Harri- 
son by the city of New York. Mr. Van Buren died at Kinderhook, July 24, 1862. 

In appearance he has been described as of about the medium size. His hair and 
eyes were light, his features animated and expressive, especially the eye, which was 
indicative of quick apprehension and close observation ; while his forehead, in its 
de|)th and expansion, exhibited the marks of great intellectual jiower. 




y^//-^. 



^:Sy^Zy^v-'t^en.^...^ 



OJlLLIAM l7ENI^Y F^Al^I^ISON. 



\ WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, ninth President of the United States, was born 
' * in Berkeley, Charles City county, Va., February 9, 1773. He was the third and 
youngest son of Governor Benjamin Harrison, who was a delegate to the Continental 
Congress in 1774-5-6, and when a candidate for the jjresidency of the Congress, urged 
upon his fellow members, with noble generosity and modesty, that they should elect 
his rival. John Hancock. With the ready good humor characteristic of him, he seized 
Mr. Hancock in his athletic arms and, as he placed him in the presidental chair, exclaimed 
to the members; " We will show Mother Britain how little we care for her. by making a 
Massachusetts man whom she has excluded from pardon our President by public pro- 
clamation." Though his father was not very well off, William Henry Harrison received a 
good education at Hampden Sydney College, and afterwards applied himself to the study 
of medicine. He was about to graduate as a jihysician when reports of horrible Indian 
butcheries in the frontier settlements, and the daring deeds of his countrymen in the 
Western wilds, roused in him the desire to join the frontier army and to share its perils 
and hardships. The army then serving in the West under General St. Clair had been 
raised for the purpose of preventing the repeated outrages and barbarities of the 
Indians. This little band the young student resolved to join. His design being ap- 
proved by Washington, who had also been a warm friend of his father, he received 
from the Commander-in-Chief an ensign's commission in the first regiment of United 
States Artillery, then stationed at Fort Washington, where Cincinnati now stands. 
Frequent defeats under St. Clair rendering it necessary that the army should be placed 
under the command of a military chief of well-earned reputation, Washington selected 
General Anthony Wayne, who at once received orders to take command of the Western 
army. Young Harrison reached Fort Washington immediately after the last defeat of 
St. Clair. Soon after his arival it became necessary to dispatch a train of pack horses to 
Fort Hamilton, about thirty miles distant upon the Great Miami. This train, in charge 
of a body of soldiers, was placed under the command of Harrison. While the distance 
was short, the thousands of lurking savages in the forest made it an extremely perilous 
trip. After the performance of this service, which was accomplished with much credit fo 
his bravery and fidelity to orders, Harrison's progress in the confidence of his command- 
ing officers was such as to gain him promotion to the rank of lieutenant, in 1792. At the 
close of the campaign. Lieutenant Harrison was made captain and placed in command 
of Fort W'ashington, laid out on grounds owned by John Cleves Symmes, whose 
daughter Captain Harrison married. In 1797 he resigned his commission, and ^^as 
appointed Secretary of the territory northwest of the Ohio, from which, in 1799 
he was chosen a delegate to Congress. The Northwestern Territory having been 
divided, Harrison was appointed, in 1801, Governor of the new territory of Indi- 
ana, embracing the present States of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin 
.\lmost the whole of it was then in possession of the Indians, with whom, as Superin- 
tendent, he made several important treaties, in which large cessions of territory were 
obtained. The agitation among the Indians caused by Tecumseh and his brother, the 
Prophet, having resulted in hostilities, Harrison, in the autumn of 181 1, advanced 
against the Prophet's town at the head of 800 men, partly regulars and partly volun- 
teers. His camp at Tippecanoe was unsuccessfully attacked on the night of November 
7. The defeated Indians were at first inclined to treat, but the breaking out of the 
war with Great Britain made them again hostile, .\fter Hull's surrender, Harrison 



was appointed, in September, 1812, to the command of the Northwest frontier, with a 
commission as Brigadier-General. It was not imtil the next year, by which time he 
was promoted to the rank of Major-General, that he was able to commence active 
operations. Several mishaps grew out of the inexperience of his subordinate officers, 
but the victory of Perry on Lake Erie enabled him to recover from the British the 
American territory which they had occupied, and to pursue them into Canada, where, 
on October 5, they were totally routed in the battle of the Thames. A peace with the 
Northwestern Indians soon followed. Not long after, in consequence of misunder- 
standings with Armstrong, the Secretary of War, Hariison resigned his commission in 
the army. In 1816 he was elected from the Cincinnati district a member of Congress, 
in which body he sat for three years. In 1S19 he was elected a member of the State 
Senate of Ohio, and in 1824 he was made United States Senator. He was appointed 
Chairman of the Military Committee, in place of General Jackson, who had just re- 
signed his seat in the Senate. In 1828 he was appointed by President John Q. Adams 
Minister Plenipotentiary to Columbia, but was recalled immediately on Jackson's 
accession to the Presidency in 1829. For several years after his return he took no 
active part in ])olitical affairs, but lived retired on his farm at North Bend, on the Ohio, 
a few miles below Cincinnati, and was for twelve years clerk of the County Court. In 
1836, as the close of Jackson's second term of office drew near, the opposition were 
somewhat at a loss for a candidate for the Presidency. The success of General Jack- 
son gave rise to the idea of adopting a candidate who had a military reputation. Har- 
rison, while in command of the Northwest department during the war of 1812, had 
enjoyed a high popularity in the West, and was now brought forward as a Presidential 
candidate. The financial crisis which followed the election of Mr. Van Buren greatly 
strengthened the opposition. The prospect of defeating his re-election was very 
strong, if the opposition could unite ujion a candidate. Mr. Clay was again brought 
forward and strongly urged. General Scott was also proposed. In the National Con- 
vention, which met at Harrisburg, December 4, 1839, General Harrison received the 
nomination. A very ardent and exciting canvass followed. On the part of the sup- 
porters of Harrison, every means was employed to arouse the popular enthusiasm. 
Mass meetings and jjolitical processions were now first brought into general use, and 
this canvass marks an era in the style of conducting elections. The slur which had 
been cast upon Harrison, that he lived in a " log cabin," with nothing to drink but 
" hard cider," was seized upon as an electioneering appeal. Log cabins became a 
regular feature in political processions, and " hard cider " one of the watchwords of 
the party. Harrison received 234 electoral votes to 60 for Van Buren. He was inaug- 
urated March 4, 184:. His Cabinet was judiciously composed, and great expecta- 
tions were formed of his administration; but within a month, and before any dis- 
tmctive line of policy could be established, he died, after an illness of eight days, 
brought on, it was supposed, by fatigue and excitement incident to his inauguration. 



(30HN C^YLEl^. 



JOHN TYLER, tenth President of the United States, was born in Charles City 
'-' county, Virginia, March 29, 1790. He was the second son of John Tyler, a 
prominent revolutionary patriot. Governor of the State from 1808 to 181 1, a Judge of 
the Federal Court of Atlmirally. antl who died in 1813. John Tyler, the future Presi- 
dent, was graduated at William and Mary College in 1807, and in 1809 was admitted to 
the bar. Two years later he was elected a member of the Legislature, and tlien re- 
elected for five successive years. In 1816 he was elected to Congress to fill a vacancy, 
and was twice re-elected. He voted for the resolutions of censure on General Jack- 
son's conduct iluring the Seminole War, and opposed internal im[)rovemenls by the 
Government, the Unitetl States Bank, the protective policy, and all restrictions on 
slavery. Ill health com[)elled him to resign before the expiration of his term. In 1823 
and the two following years he was a leading member of the State Legislature. In 
December, 1825, he was chosen Governor by the Legislature, and at the next session 
was re-elected by a unanimous vote. He succeeded John Randolph as United States 
Senator in March, 1827, and was re-elected in 1823. In the presidential election of 
1S24 he had supported Mr. Crawford, who received the vote of Virginia. He, however, 
approved the choice of Mr. Adams in preference to General Jackson by the House of 
Representatives ; but seeing in Adams' first message " an almost total disregard of 
the Federative principle," he sided in the Senate with the opposition to him, consisting 
of the combined followers of Jackson, Crawford and Calhoun. He voted against the 
Tariff Bill of 1S28, and against all projects of internal improvement. During the debate 
on Mr. Clay's tariff resolutions in 1831-2, he made a three days' speech against a 
tariff for direct protection ; but advocated one for revenue with incidental protection 
to home industry. In 1832 he avowed his sympathy with the nullification movement 
in South Carolina, and made a speech against the force bill, which passed the Senate 
with no vote but his in the negative. But he voted for Mr. Clay's com[)romise bill. 
In the session of 1833-4 he supported Mr. Clay's resolutions of censure upon Presi- 
dent Jackson's removal of the deposits, which he regarded as an unwarrantable assump- 
tion of power, although he considered the bank unconstitutional. The Legislature of 
Virginia having in February, 1836, adopted resolutions instructing the Senators from 
that State to vote for expunging those resolutions from the Journal of the Senate, Mr. 
Tyler resigned and returned to his home, which about this time he had removed to 
Williamsburgh. In 1836, as a Whig candidate for Vice-President, he obtained the 
votes of Maryland, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. 

In 1838 he was elected to the Legislature by the Whigs of James City county, and 
during the subsequent session of that body he acted entirely with the Whig party. He 
was a delegate from Virginia to the Whig national presidential convention which met 
at Harrisburg, December 4, 1839, and was nominated for Vice-President with General 
Harrison as President, and elected in Novemlier, 1840. President Harrison died just 
one month after his inauguration, and the administration devolved u])on the Vice- 
President. Mr. Tyler requested the members of the Cabinet to remain in the places 
they held under President Harrison. Three days later he published an inaugural 
address which, in its indications of political principles, was satisfactory to the Whigs. 
He at once began to remove from office the Democrats appointed by previous adminis- 
trations, and to fill their offices with Whigs. In his message to the Congress which 
convened in extra session. May 31, 1S41, he discussed at considerable length the ques- 



tion of a national bank, at that pcriotl a leading feature of the U'hig polic)', and he 
intimated to several members his desire that Congress shoidd request apian for a bank 
from the Secretary of the Treasury. Resolutions for this jjurpose were adopted by 
both Houses, and Mr. Ewing sent in a l)ill for the incorporation of the " Fiscal liank 
of the United States," the essential features of which were framed in accordance 
with the President's suggestions, and in deference to his ])eculiar views of the institu- 
tion. The bill was finally passed by Congress on .\ugust 6, with a clause concerning 
branch banks differing from Mr. Ewing's, and sent to the President, who returned it 
with a veto message, in which he declared that act unconstitutional in several particu- 
lars. This veto created great excitement and anger among tlie Whigs throughout the 
country. The Whig leaders in Congress, however, made yet another effort to conciliate 
the President and to secure his consent to their favorite measure. A bill was prepared 
embracing certain features supposed to be acceptable to the President, and was 
privately submitted to and approved by him and his Cabinet, and finally, without any 
alteration, j)assed by the House, August 23, and by the Senate two weeks later ; but 
the President, who, by some communications, was made to believe that the Iiill was 
framed with the object of entrapping him into an act of inconsistency, vetoed it. Very 
soon after the promulgation of the veto, the Cabinet, with the exception of Mr. Webster, 
the Secretary of State, sent in their resignations and published statements of their 
reasons for this step, reflecting severely on the conduct of President Tyler. The 
President filled their places by appointing other officers — all of them Whigs — or at 
least opponents of the Democratic party. Before the adjournment of Congress, 
September 13, the Whig members published a manifesto proclaiming that all jjolitical 
relations between them and the President were at an end. 

The course taken by Mr. Webster, though condemned by some of the Whigs, was 
justified by the greater portion of the people on the ground of the critical condition of 
our relations with Great Britain on the subject of the Northeastern boundary, in regard 
to which he was at the time engaged in negotiations with the British Ministry. After 
a satisfactory treaty was arranged and ratified (.Vugust, 1842), Mr. Webster resigned, 
and was succeeded by Mr. Legarre, who died soon after. After the appointment of Mr. 
Calhoun, of South Carolina, as Secretary of State, a treaty under his management was 
concluded between the United States and Texas, April 12, 1844, which was rejected 
by the Senate. But the scheme of annexation was vigorously prosecuted by the Presi- 
dent, and at the very close of his administration brought to a successful issue by the 
passage of joint resolutions by Congress, approved March i, 1845. The other most 
important measures of his administration were the act establishing a uniform system of 
proceedings in bankruptcy, passed in August, 1841, and the protective tariff of 1842. 
Toward the close of Mr. Tyler's term it became evident that he had lost the confidence 
of the W'higs without having secured that of the Democrats. In May, 1844, a conven- 
tion, composed chiefly of officeholders, assembled at Baltimore, and tendered him 
a nomination for the Presidency, which he accepted; but in August, perceiving that 
he had really no popular support, he withdrew from the canvass. In 1861 he was a 
member of the Peace Convention, composed of delegates from the " Border States," 
which met at Washington to endeavor to arrange terms of comjiromise between the 
seceded States of the South and the Federal (lovernment. Of this convention he was 
elected president, but nothing resulted from its deliberations. He died in Richmond, 
Va., January ;;, 1862. 




/ > 



(3ames I^. ^ohi{. 



JAMES KNOX POLK, the eleventh President of the United States, was born in 
Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, November 2, 1795. His ancestors, whose 
name was originally Pollock, emigrated from Ireland early in the eighteenth century. 
His father was a farmer, who in 1806 removed to the valley of Duck river, in 
Tennessee. The son received at first a scanty education, but finally entered 'the 
University of North Carolina, and graduated in 1818. 

Returning to Tennessee, with health considerably impaired by excessive applica- 
tion, Mr Polk, in the beginning of the year 1819, commenced the'study of the law in 
the office of Senator Grundy, and late in 1820 was admitted to the bar. He began his 
professional career in the county of Maury, with great advantages, derived from the 
connection of his family with its early settlement. His thorough academical prepara- 
tion, his accurate knowledge of the law, his readiness and resources in debate, his 
unwearied application to business, secured him at once full employment. 

In 1S25 he was eiec^-d to Congress, and soon became a conspicuous oijponent of 
the administration of John Quincy Adams, and was afterwards one of the most efficient 
supporters of Jackson. He was, upon entering Congress, with one or two e.xceptions, 
the junior member of that body. He was nominated for Speaker bv the Democratic 
party near the close of the session of 1834, but was defeated by a coalition between 
the Whigs and a portion of the Democrats in favor of John Bell. In 1835 Mr. Polk 
was elected Speaker, and was re-elected to that position in 1837. 

In 1839, having served for fourteen years in Congress, he declined a re-election 
and was chosen Governor of Tennessee. In 1840 he received the nomination of the 
Legislature of Tennessee and several other States for Vice-President, with Mr. Van 
Buren, but at the election received only one electoral vote, Richard M. Johnson being 
the regular Democratic candidate. In 1841, being renominated for Governor, he was 
defeated by a majority of 3224 votes. 

The Democratic National Convention, which met at Baltimore May 27, 1844 
nominated him for President on the ninth ballot, George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania 
being nominated for Vice-President, Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuysc-n were 
the candidates of the Whig party. Mr. Polk was elected by a popular vote of 
1-337,243 to 1,299,062 for Clay, and 62,300 for James G. Birney, the Anti-Slavery 
candidate. The annexation of Texas, the most exciting question in the canvas.s, was 
effected by Mr. Polk's inauguration His Cabinet consisted of James Buchanan of 
Pennsylvania, Secretary of State; Robert J. Walker of Missis.sippi. Secretary of the 
Treasury; William L. Marcy of New York, Secretary of War; Cleorge Bancroft of 
Massachusetts, Secretary of the Navy till September 9, 1846, afterward John Y. Mason 
of Virginia; Cave Johnson of Tennessee, Postmaster-Cieneral; John Y. Mason, Nathan 
Clifford of Maine and Isaac Toucey of Connecticut, successively Attorney-Generals. 

Two important questions presented themselves to Polk's administration for settle- 
ment, the troubles with Mexico growing out of the annexation of Texa.s, and the 
arrangement of the Northwestern boundary of the United States. The question of 
the Northwestern boundary had been left unsettled by the treaty of Washington 
in 1842. Great Britain was anxious to arrange the matter, and late in the year i^z 
Mr. Fox, the British Minister at Washington, proposed to Mr. Webster, then Secretary 
of State, to open negotiations. The British proposition was accepted, but nothin- 
further was done until February, 1844, when Sir Richard Packenham, then British 



Minister at Washington, proposed to take up the question of the Oregon Ijoundary and 
settle it. Mr. Upshur, the Secretary of State, accepted the offer, but was killed a few 
days later by an accident — an explosion on board the "Princeton." Si.x months later 
Sir Richard Packenham renewed the proposal to Mr. Calhoun, who had become 
Secretary of State, and negotiations were entered upon in earnest. In 1818 the United 
States and Great Britain had agreed upon the forty-ninth degree of north latitude as the 
boundary between the United States and British America from the Lake of the Woods 
to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Calhoun opened the negotiations to con- 
tinue this line to the Pacific. The British Minister refusing to consent to this, and 
proposing to extend the forty-ninth parallel from the mountains to the north branch of 
the Columbia, and then to make the boundary follow that stream from this point of 
intersection to the sea, the subject was postponed until Packenham could receive addi- 
tional instructions from his government. President Polk caused the Secretary of State 
to reopen the negotiations by proposing to Great Britain the forty-ninth parallel of 
latitude as a boundary. The British Minister declining this proposition the matter was 
dropped. The British ministry decided at length to reopen negotiations, and 
Sir Richard Packenham shortly after communicated to Mr. Buchanan the willing- 
ness of his government to accept the forty-ninth parallel as a boundary. The time 
at which the joint occupation would terminate was rapidly drawing to a close and 
the President was anxious to settle the matter, but at the same time was not willing 
to assume the responsibility of accepting a boundary which fell so far short of the 
popular expectations. At the suggestion of Senator Benton of Missouri, he asked the 
advice of the Senate as to the propriety of accepting the British offer, and pledging 
himself to be guided by its decision. The Senate advised him to accept it, and when 
the treaty was sent to it, ratified it after a warm debate extending over two days. 
Thus the matter was brought to a close. By the treaty, which was concluded in 1846^ 
the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude was made the boundary between the United 
States and the British possessions, from the summit of the Rocky Mountains to the 
middle of the channel between Vancouver's Island and the mainland, and thence 
southerly through the middle of the Straits of San Juan de Fuca to the Pacific. The 
navigation of the Columbia river and its main southern branch was made free to both 
parties. 

In the meantime the Mexican difficulty had been found much harder of settlement. 
Mexico had never acknowledged the independence of Texas, and since the defeat at 
San Jacinto had repeatedly threatened to restore her authority over the Texans by 
force of arms. The President sent General Taylor with a small force to occupy the 
country between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, the United States claiming the latter 
river as their boundary, while the Mexicans maintained that Texas had never extended 
beyond the Nueces. 

In .\pril, 1846, hostilities broke out on the Rio Grande between General Taylor's 
army and that of the Mexican commander. General Arista. The President sent a mes- 
sage to Congress that " war existed by the act of Mexico," and asking for men and 
money to carry it on. Congress responded May 11 by an appropriation of $10,000,000 
and o-iving authority to call out 50,000 volunteers. The war was prosecuted with 
energy, and resulted in the conquest of Mexico and upper California, and the Rio 
Grande was accejDted from its mouth to El Paso as the southern boundary of Texas. 
In the election of 1848 Mr. Polk was not a candidate, having in 1844 pledged himself 
not to seek a renomination, and his administration terminated March 4, 1849. Three 
months after his retirement Mr. Polk was seized with illness, and in a few days died. 
He was of middle stature, with a full, angular brow, and quick, penetrating eyes. 
He was grave, but unostentatious and amiable, and his character was pure and upright. 



EcAGHAI-^Y ©AYLOI^. 



"TACHARY TAYLOR, uvcllih I'rcsitlcnt of the United States, was liorn in Orange 
*—' county, Virginia, September 24, 1784. Mis father. Colonel Richard Taylor, 
served throughout the Revolutionary war, and removed in 1785 from Virginia to Ken- 
tucky, where he had an extensive jilantation in the neighborhood of Louisville. 
Zachary was engaged on the plantation till his twenty-fourth year. His brother Han- 
cock, a Lieutenant in the United States army, died in 1808, and the vacant position was 
then assigned to Zachary. He was made a Captain in November, 1810, and after the 
declaration of war against tireat Britain, was placed in command of Fort Harrison, a 
blockhouse and stockade on the Wabash river, about fifty miles above Vincennes. 
This was the first object of attack by the Indians, a large force of whom invested it in 
September, 1812, and after jirofessions of peace made a furious night assault and set 
fire to the lower buildings of the fort. Taylor had but fifty men, of whom two-thirds 
were ill ; but after a sharp conflict of several hours, he extinguished the flames and 
repulsed the assailants with severe loss. For his conduct on this occasion he received 
from President ISLulison tlie rank of Major by brevet, the first instance in the service of 
this species of promotion. A few months later he took part in a successful expeilition 
led by General Hojjkins against the Indian villages ; and in 1814, with the full rank of 
ALrjor, commanded an expedition against the British and Indians on Rock river. On 
the restoration of peace in 1815, Congress reduced the army and annulled many of the 
promotions made during the war ; Taylor was reduced to the rank of Captain, and in 
conseijuence resigned his commission and retired to his plantation near Louisville. 
Being soon reinstated as Major, he was employed several years alternately on the North- 
west frontier and in the South, where, in 1822, he built Fort Jesup. In 1819 he became 
Lieutenant-Colonel, and in 1822 Colonel. In the latter year he was engaged in the Black 
Hawk War, and was then ordered to Prairie du Chien, where he took command of 
Fort Crawford, which had been erected under his superintendence. In 1836-40 he 
served in Florida. On December 25, 1837, he defeated the Indians in the desperate 
and decisive battle of Okeechobee, and was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General 
by brevet ; and in April, 1838, he was made Commander-in-Chief in Florida. 

In 1840 he was appointed to the command of the first department of the army in 
the Southwest. He purchased at this time an estate at Baton Rouge, to which he 
removed his family. Congress having in March, 1845, passed the joint resolution 
annexing Texas, General Taylor was directed to defend it against invasion from Mex- 
ico. In July he embarked at New Orleans with 1500 troops, and in the beginning of 
August encamped with them at Corpus Christi, Texas, where he was reinforced, so that 
in November his forces amounted to about 4000 men. The administration desired to 
bring the Mexican question to a crisis without, if possible, incurring the responsibility 
of beginning a war. Indirectly, therefore, it endeavored to induce General Taylor to 
advance his forces into the disputed territory ; hut he disregarded all hints to that 
effect, and would not move until explicitly ordered by the President. Positive instruc- 
tions were at length sent, and on March 8, 1846, the army began its advance toward the 
Rio Grande, and on the 28th reached the banks of that river opposite Matamoras, 
where the Mexicans were also throwing up batteries and redoubts. On April 12 Clen- 
eral Ampudia, the Mexican commander, addressed a note to General Taylor, requiring 
him within twenty-four hours to break up his camp and retire beyond the Nueces, 
" while our governments are regulating the pending question in relation to Texas," and 



informing him tluit his non-compliance would be regarded by the Mexicans as eiiuiva- 
lont to a declaration of war. General Taylor replied that he was acting under instruc- 
tions which did not permit him to return to the Xueces, and that if the Mexicans saw 
fit to begin hostilities, he should not avoid the conilict. Taylor, promoted to the rank 
ot Major-General, took possession of Matamoras on May i8, without opposition, and 
remained there till September, when he marched against Monterey, which he reached 
on September 9 with a force of 6625 men, mostly volunteers. After several days des- 
l)erate fighting. General Ampudia ca])itulated on the 24th. At Buena Vista he defeated 
Santa Anna. During the rest of the war the valley of the Rio Grande remained in 
quiet possession of the Americans. On his return home in November, 1847, "Old 
Rough and Ready," as his soldiers familiarly called him, was greeted everywhere by 
the warmest demonstrations of popular applause ; and as the time for the presidential 
election was approaching, his name was at once brought forward for the jiresidency. 
He announced himself " a Whig, but not an ultra Whig," and in several letters inti- 
mated his willingness to accept the nomination, provided he could be left untram- 
melled by j)artisan pledges, at the same time expressing his distrust of his fitness for 
the otilice. In June, 1848, he was nominated by the Whig National Convention at 
Philadelphia, the other candidates for the nomination being Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster 
and General Scott. Millard Fillmore of New York was nominated for the vice-presi- 
dency. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts and a few other delegates, on this result being 
announced, withdrew from the convention and subsequently formed the Free Soil party 
on the basis of ojtposition to the extension of slavery. The Democratic National Con- 
vention had already nominated Lewis Cass for the presidency ; but a powerful section 
of the New York Democracy, familiarly known as the Barn Burners, refused their suj)- 
port to Mr. Cass, partly because of his pro-slavery position. General Taylor was 
inaugurated President on Monday, March 5, 1849, and on the following day appointed 
his Cabinet. 

The Democratic jiarty had elected a i)Iurality of the members of Congress, and a 
few Free Soil members held the balance of power between the Whigs and Democrats. 
A vehement struggle began with regard to the organization of the new Territories, the 
admission of California as a State and the question of the boundary between Texas 
and New Mexico, all of these subjects being connected with the question of the exten- 
sion of slavery. President Taylor in his message to Congress recommended that Cali- 
fornia should be admitted, and that the other Territories should form State constitu- 
tions to themselves, and should be admitted into the Union with or without slavery as 
their constitutions might prescribe. These recommendations were not acceptable to 
the slave-holding leaders, many of whom made open threats of secession. Henry Clay 
in the Senate introduced the compromise measures known by his name, including the 
recommendations of the President's message. His propositions were still the subject 
in one form or another of exciting debates in Congress and of earnest discussion among 
the people, when, on the 4th of July, 1850, President Taylor was seized with bilious 
fever, dying of it on the 9th, at the Presidential Mansion. 





Ccu^Cd '^ '-^Ci^U^r.<.-<rzi) 



ffllLLAIs;D FlIiLMOI^E. 



/\/\ II.LARI) I'll.LM* )RI';, ihirtccnth I'rcsidcnt of the United Status, was born in 
''' the township of Locke (now Siimmcrhill), Cayuga county, N. Y., February 7, 
iSoo. His father, Nathaniel I-'ilhiiore, was a farmer. Owing to a defective title, he 
lost his property on what was called the " Military tract," and removed to another 
part of Cayuga county, where ho took a per[)etual lease of 130 acres, wholly unim- 
proved and covered with heavy timber. It was here that the future President first 
knew anything of life. Everything was of a very primitive character in that section, 
the schools partaking of tlie nature of their surroundings. Young Millard Fillmore 
never saw a copy of " Shakesjieare " or of " Robinson Crusoe," a history of the United 
States, or even a map of his own country, till he was nineteen years old. His father's 
hard luck with the exceedingly poor soil which he endeavored to cultivate made him 
desire something better than farming for his sons. Millard was apprenticed at four- 
teen, for a few months on trial, to the Inisiness of carding wool and dressing cloth. 
During his apprenticeship he was treated with such injustice that he was glad to leave 
the place. At the close of his term Fillmore shouldered his knapsack, containing 
a few clothes and a supply of bread and dried venison, and set out, on foot and alone, 
for his father's house, a distance something more than a hundred miles through the 
primeval forests. Mr. Fillmore speaks of this episode in his autobiography, saying: 
" I think that this injustice — which was no more than other apprentices have suffered, 
and will suffer — had a marked effect on my character. It made me feel for the weak 
and unprotected and to hate the insolent tyrant in every station in life." 

In 1815 he again began the business of carding and cloth dressing, which was 
carried on from June to December of each year. The first book that he purchased or 
owned was a small English dictionary, which he diligently studied while attending the 
carding machine. In 1819 he thought of studying law, but as he had yet twcj years of 
his apprenticeship to serve he proposed to compromise the matter with his employer 
by paying $30 for his time and relinquishing his wages for his last year's services. 
He effected an arrangement with a retired country lawyer, by which he was to receive 
his board in payment for services in the office. Thus he began the study of law, 
part of the time teaching school, and so struggling on, overcoming almost insurmount- 
able difficulties, till at length, in the spring of 1823, he was admitted as an attorney by 
the Court of Common I'leas of Erie county. He had not really completed the course 
of study usually prescribed. The intercession of several leading members of the 
Buffalo bar, whose confidence he had won, enaliled him, however, to olitain the coveted 
])rivilege to practice, which he began at Aurora, where his father then resided, and 
where he luckily won his first case and a fee of $4. In 1827 he was admitted as an 
attorney, and two years later as counselor of the Supreme Court of this State. In 
1830 he removed to Buffalo, and after a brief period formed a partnership with Nathan 
K. Hall, to which Solomon G. Haven was soon after admitted. 

By hard study and the closest application, Mr. Fillmore speedily became a sound 
and successful lawyer, eventually attaining a highly honorable position in the pro- 
fession. His political career began and ended with the liirth and the extinction of the 
Whig party. In 1828 he was elected by Erie county to the State Legislature of New 
York, serving for three terms, retiring with a reputation for ability, integrity and a 
conscientious performance of his duties. In 1826 he had married Miss Abigail 
Powers, the daughter of the Rev. Lemuel Powers, a stej) that served to lighten many 



of the burdens of the first years of his practice, as his wife proved herself to be a 
helpmate in the highest sense of the word. When, consequently, in 1S32 he was elected 
to Congress he was quite settled in life, so far as a ripened experience of the world is 
concerned. He had seen more at the age of thirty-two than some men many years his 
.senior. .Vfter serving for one term he retired till 1836, when, at the earnest solicita- 
tion of his friends, he again accepted a seat in Congress. At the time he took his seat 
in Congress the great conflict between President Jackson and Congress, on the subject 
of the National Bank was going on, and being fanned into greater heat by the leaders 
of the contending parties. The veto of the Bank Bill and the removal of the deposits 
had stirred the political opponents of Jackson until the greatest statesmen of the 
country were engaged in the discussion, and when Mr. Fillmore's voice could not be 
heard he was learning much as a silent observer. He was again returned to Congress 
in 1S40, but declined a renomination in 1842. .\lthough Mr. Fillmore did not claim 
to have discovered any original system of revenue, still the tariff of 1842 was a new 
creation, and he is most justly entitled to the distinction of being its author. It 
operated successfully, giving immediate life to our languishing industries and national 
credit. In the Whig Convention that met at Baltimore in May, 1844, he was a candi- 
date for the office of Vice-President, supported by his own and several of the Western 
States. In the following September he was nominated by acclamation for Governor, 
but was defeated by Silas Wright, his illustrious contemporary, Henry Clay, being 
van(iuished at the same time by James K. Polk in the Presidential contest. In 1847 
Mr. Fillmore was elected Comptroller of the State of New York, an ofHce which then 
included many duties now distributed among other departments. In his report of 
January i, 1849, he suggested that a national bank, with the stocks of the United 
States as the sole basis upon which to issue its currency, might be established and car- 
ried on, so as to prove a great convenience to the Government, with perfect safety to 
the people. This idea involves the essential principle of our national banks. In June, 
184S, Mr. Fillmore was nominated by the Whig National Convention for Vice-Presi- 
dent, with General Zachary Taylor, who had recently won military renown in Mexico, 
as President. This ticket was successful, Mr. Fillmore being inaugurated as Vice- 
President on Marclt 5, 1849. He had resigned the ComptroUership in February. 
More than seven months of a session in Congress had been exhausted in heated 
controversies, when, on July 9, 1850, the country was startled by the death of Presideni 
Taylor. He passed away in the second year of his presidency. It was a critical momen: 
in the history of the country when Millard Fillmore was made President of the United 
States, Wednesday, July 10, 1850. With great propriety he reduced the ceremony of 
his inauguration to an official act to be marked by solemnity, and not by pomp. 
He was, therefore, unostentatiously sworn into office in the Hall of Representatives in 
the presence of both Houses. Mr. Fillmore's administration being in a jiolitical 
minority in both Houses of Congress, many wise and admirable measures recom- 
mended by him failed of adoption ; nevertheless we are indebted to him for cheap 
postage ; for the extension of the National Capitol, the corner-stone of which he laid 
on the 4th of July, 1851 ; for the Perry treaty, opening the ports of Japan, and for 
various valuable exploring expeditions. Nothing in Mr. Fillmore's Presidential career 
was, during the closing years of his life, regarded with greater satisfaction than the 
suppressed portion of his last message of December 6, 1852, which related to the 
great political problem of the period — the balance of power between the free and the 
slave States. His plan was one of .\frican colonization, somewhat similar to one 
seriously entertained by his successor. President Lincoln. Mr. Fillmore died in Buf- 
falo, on the 8th of March, 1874. 



Fr^ANI^LIN F?IEI^6B. 



FRANI<LL1X PIERCE, the fourteenth President of the United States, was born in 
Hillsborough, New Hampshire, November 23, 1804. His father. General Benja- 
min Pierce, served throughout the Revolutionary War, and in 1827 and 1829 was 
Governor of New Hampshire. Franklin I'ierce graduated at Bowdoin College in 1824, 
and studied law at Portsmouth, afterward in the law school at Northampton, .Mass., 
and at Amherst, N. H. He was admitted to the bar in 1827, and began inactice at 
Hillsborough. He was an ardent advocate of the election of General Jackson to the 
I)residency. From 1829 to 1833 he r/-presentod the town of Hillsl)orough in the Stale 
Legislature, and in the last two yeais was the Speaker of the House. In 1833 he was 
elected to Congress, where he served on the judiciary and other irai)ortant committees. 
He opposed the policy of internal iini)rovements, the bill authorizing an appropriation 
for the military academy at West Point, and all anti-slavery measures. He remained a 
member of the House of Representatives till 1837, when he was elected to the United 
States Senate, of which he was the youngest member, being barely at the legal age. 
In 1842 he resigned his seat and returned to the practice of his profession at Ccmcord, 
to which place he had removed from Hillsborough in 1838. In 1846 President Polk 
offered him the post of United States Attorney-General, which he declined. He also 
declined the Democratic nomination for Governor. He supported the annexation of 
Te.xas, in opposition to a considerable portion of the Democracy of New England, and 
in 1847 he enrolled himself a member of one of the first volunteer companies of 
Concord. On the passage by Congress of the bill for the increase of the army, he 
became Colonel of the Ninth Regiment, and shortly after was commissioned Brigadier 
General and joined the army under General Scott at Puebla, August 7, after several 
sharp engagements with guerillas on the way. In the battle of Contreras he was 
severely hurt by the falling of a horse, but continued during the day at the head of his 
brigade. In the battle of Churubusco, while leading his men against the enemy, he 
fell fainting from the pain of his injuries, but he refused to quit the field. After the 
battle General Scott appointed him one of the Commissioners to arrange tlie terms of 
an armistice. In December, the war being ended, he returned home, resigned his 
commission, and resumed the practice of the law. In 1850 he presided over the con- 
stitutional convention of New Hampshire. In 1852 the Democratic National Conven- 
tion assembled at Baltimore, and after thirty-five ballotings for a candidate for 
President of the United States, the Virginia delegation brought forward the name of 
Franklin Pierce, and on the forty-ninth ballot he was nominated by 282 votes to eleven 
for all other candidates. His jirincipal competitors were James Buchanan, Lewis Cass, 
W. L. Marcy and S. .A. Douglas. .\t the ensuing election he received the votes of all the 
States except Massachusetts, \'crmont, Kentucky and Tennessee, whose suffrages were 
given to General Winfield Scott. Of the votes of the Electoral College Pierce received 
234 and Scott 42. In his inaugural address, March 4, 1853, President Pierce maintained 
that shivery was recognized by the Constitution, and that the fugitive slave law was 
constitutional and should be strictly executed, and denounced in strong terms the 
agitation of the slavery question. Mis Caliinet, which was not changed during his 
administration, was as follows : William L. Marcy of New York, Secretary of State ; 
James Guthrie of Kentuky, Secretary of the Treasury ; Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, 
Secretary of War ; James C. Dobbin of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy ; Robert 
McClelland of M-chigan, Secretary of the Interior ; James Campbell of Pennsylvania, 





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I'osimaster-Gencral ; Caleb Cusliing of Massachusetts, Attorney-General. Among the 
most important events of his administration were the disptite respecting the boundary 
between tiie United States and Mexico, resulting in the acquisition of Arizona ; the 
exi)loration of the routes proposed for a railroad from the Mississijipi to the Pacific ; 
the amicable settlement of a serious dispute with Great Britain about the fisheries ; the 
affair of Martin Koszta ; the repeal of the Missouri Conijiromise, and the organization 
of the Territories of Kansas and Nel)raska untler the Kansas-Nebraska act ; the Ostend 
Conference; the treaty negotiated at Washington in 1854 between the United States 
and Great Britain, providing for commercial reciprocity between this country and the 
Canadian provinces ; the treaty with Japan negotiated in the same year by Commodore 
Perry; the filibustering invasion of Nicaragua by William Walker ; the dismissal of 
the British Minister at Washington, and the British Consuls in New York, Philadelphia 
and Cincinnati, because of their comiilicity in the illegal enlistment of recruits for the 
British army, and the troubles in Kansas. President Pierce signed bills to reorganize 
the consular and diplomatic systems of the United States ; to organize the Court of 
Claims ; to provide a retired list for the navy, and to confer the title of Lieutenant 
General on Winfield Scott. He vetoed bills for the completion and improvement of 
certain public works ; for appropriating public lands for the relief of the indigent insane ; 
for the jjayment of the French spoliation claims, and for increasing the subsidy of the 
Collins Line of steamships. On January 24, 1856, he sent a message to Congress, in 
which he represented the formation of a Free-State government in Kansas as an act of 
rebellion, and justified the principles of the Kansas and Nebraska act. At the Demo- 
cratic National Convention, in June, he was a candidate, but after several ballotings 
Mr. Buchanan was nominated. Before the adjournment of Congress, in August, 1856, 
the House of Representatives made an amendment to the army appropriation bill, pro- 
viding that no part of the army should be employed to enforce the laws made by the 
territorial legislation of Kansas, until Congress should have decided that it was a valid 
legislative assembly. The Senate refused to concur in this proviso, and Congress 
adjourned without making any provision for the support of the army. The President 
immediately issued a proclamation calling an extra session to convene on Augest 21, 
when the army bill was passed without any proviso, and immediately afterward Con- 
gress adjourned. Pierce's message on the assembling of Congress in December, was 
chiefly devoted to the subject of Kansas, and in its citation of events and expressions 
of praise, it took strong grounds against the Free-State party of the country. Soon 
after the close of his administration, March 4, 1857, Mr. Pierce visited Madeira, and 
afterward made a i)rotracted tour of Europe, returning home in i860. He died in 
Concord on October 8, 1869. 





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(3ambs Bughanan. 



TAMKS BUCHANAN', fifteenth President of the United States, was born near 
'-' Mercersburg, Pa., April 23, 1791. As the days of his youth were those of tlie 
nation's youth, he saw, during his pubHc career of forty years, all our great extensions 
of boundary on the South and \\'est, acijuired from foreign powers; the admission of 
thirteen new States, the development of many important ([uestions of internal and 
foreign policy, and the gradual rise and final culmination of a great and disastrous 
insurrection. He was educated at a school in Mercersburg and at Dickinson College, 
Pa., where he A'as graduated in 1809. He began to practice law in Lancaster in 181 2. 
His early political principles were those of tlie Federalists, who disapproved of the war. 
His first public address was made at the age of twenty-three, on the occasion of a 
popular meeting in Lancaster after the capture of Washington Iiy the British in 18 14. 
He urged the enlistment of volunteers for the defense of Baltimore, antl was among 
the first to enroll his name. In October of the same year he was elected to the House 
of Representatives in the Legislature of Pennsylvania for Lancaster county. 

In October, 1815, he was again elected to the Legislature, and at the close of that 
session he retired to the practice of his profession, in which he gained early distinction. 
His intention at this time was not to re-enter public life, but the death of a young lady 
to whom he was engaged caused him to seek change and distraction of thought. He 
accepted a nomination to Congress, and was elected in 1820, taking his seat in Decem- 
ber, 1821. He remained in the House of Representatives ten years — during Mr. 
Monroe's second term, llirough the administratitm of John Quincy Adams and during 
the first two years of Jackson's administration. In December, 1829, he became chair- 
man of the Judiciary Committee of the House. 

During Mr. Adams' term the friends of the administration began to take the 
name of National Republicans, while the opposing party assumed the name of Demo- 
crats. Mr. Buchanan was one of the leaders of the opposition in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. He was always a strong supporter and warm [tersonal friend of General 
Jackson. At the close of the Twenty-first Congress, March, 183 1, it was Mr. 
Buchanan's wish to retire from public life, but at the recjuest of General Jackson — who 
had become President in 1829 — he accepted the mission to Russia. He sailed from 
New York April 8, 1832, and arrived at St. Petersburg about the middle of June. 
The chief objects of his mission were the negotiation of a commercial treaty that 
should promote an increase of commerce between Russia and the LTnited States by 
regulating the duties to be levied on the merchandise of each country by the other, so 
far as to prevent undue discrimination in favor of the products of other countries — to 
provide for the residence and functions of Consuls, etc., and also the negotiation of a 
treaty respecting the maritime rights of neutral nations on the principle that " free 
ships make free goods." He left St. Petersburg August 8, 1833, spent a short time in 
Paris and London, and reached home in November. On December 6, 1834, the 
Legislature of Pennsylvania elected him to the United States Senate. 

Toward the end of Jackson's administration the subject of slavery began lo be 
pressed upon the attention of Congress by [jetitions for its abolition in the District of 
Columbia. One memorial on this subject was presented by Mr. Buchanan himself 
from some Quakers in his own State. Mr. Calhoun and others objected to the recep- 
tion of these petitions. Mr. Buchanan, though he disapjiroved of slavery, yet 
contended that Congress had no power under the Constitution to interfere witli slavery 



within those States where it existed, and tliat it would be very unwise to abolish it 
in the District of Columbia; but nevertheless he also contended, in a long and 
forcible speech, for the people's right of petition, and the duty of Congress, save under 
exceptional circumstances, to receive their petitions. 

Mr. Buchanan was conspicuous in the Senate as a supporter of Jackson's financial 
policy throughout his administration and that of his successor, Mr. Van Buren, of the 
same jjarty. He had been re-elected to the Senate in January, 1837, by a very large 
vote and for a full term, his first election having been to a vacancy. He was the first 
person who had ever received a second election from the Legislature of Pennsylvania. 
In 1839 Mr. Van Buren offered him the .\ttorney-Generalship, but he declined, prefer- 
ing his position as a Senator from Pennsylvania. In 1843 he was elected to the 
Senate for a third term, and in 1844 his name was brought forward as a Democratic 
candidate of Pennsylvania for the presidential nomination; but before the National 
Convention met he withdrew in order that the whole strength of the party might 
be concentrated upon one candidate. James K. Polk was elected, and Mr. Buchanan 
became his Secretary of State. Instead of carrying out the policy of President Polk and 
Mr. Buchanan, the administration of President Taylor caused such complications and 
misunderstandings between England and the United States in connection with the 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty, that Mr. Buchanan was obliged to go, subsequently, as Minister 
to London to straighten out matters. On the accession of the Whig party to power, 
under Taylor, in March, 1849, Mr. Buchanan retired for a time from official life. In 
1852 Mr. Buchanan was a candidate for the presidency on the Democratic ticket, but 
Ceneral Franklin Pierce received the nomination and was elected. Under Pierce's 
administration he was appointed Minister to England, where he landed August 17, 
1853. Upon the conclusion of his mission he returned to New York in April, 1856, 
meeting with a public reception from the authorities and people of the city, that 
evinced the interest that now began to be everywhere manifested in him as the prob- 
able future President. Chiefly through the efforts of Mr. Slidell, Mr. Buchanan was 
nominated. The main political issue was now slavery or no slavery. Mr. Buchanan 
was chosen President, because he received the electoral votes of the five free States of 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois and California. Without them he could 
not have been elected. Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated on March 4, 1857. He 
has been often and severely reproached for a " temporizing policy " during his 
administration, and a want of such vigor as might have averted the civil war; but 
the policy of Mr. Lincoln's administration, until after the attack on Fort Sumter, was 
identical with that of Mr. Buchanan. It was the great misfortune of Mr. Buchanan's 
position that he had to appeal to a Congress in which there were two sectional ])arties 
breathing mutual defiance. On March 9, 1861, he returned to his home at 
Wheatland, a small estate of twenty-two acres, about a mile from the town of Lan- 
caster, Pa., where he was welcomed by an immense gathering of his neighbors and the 
citizens of Lancaster. Here he lived for the remaining seven years of his life, dying 
in his seventy-eighth year. Mr. Buchanan's loyalty to the Constitution of the United 
States was unbounded. He was not a man of brilliant genius, nor did he ever do any 
one thing to make his name illustrious and immortal, as Webster did, when he 
defended the Constitution against the heresy of nullification, but in the course of a 
long, useful and consistent life, filled with the exercise of talents of a fine order 
and uniformability, he had made the Constitution of his country the object of his 
deepest affection, the constant guide of all his public acts. 



flBI^AHAM lilNGOLN. 



A I'.RAHA.M LINCOLN, the sixteenth President of the United States, was horn in 
'*■ Hardin (now Larue) county, Kentucky, February u, 1.S09. His ancestors were 
among the early settlers of Rockingham county, \'a., whither tliey had come from 
Bucks county, I'a. His parents were both of Virginian birth. One year <.)f sciiooHng 
was all that Mr. Lincohi ever had. The few books within his reach he diligently read. 
In 1S25 he managed a ferry across the Ohio for §6 a month. He was noted for his 
immense strength and agility, and for his skill as a wrestler. He was si.x feet four 
inches high. In 1S28 he went to New Orleans as a "bow hand " on a flat boat, with 
a cargo of produce. In March, 1S30, the family moved to Illinois, settling ten miles 
west of Decatur, where they built a log house on the north fork of the Sangamon, and 
cleared fifteen acres of land, for the fencing of which Abraham sjjlit the rails. After 
becoming of age he spent a year or two in working at odd jobs for the farmers of the 
neighborhood. His first public speech, made about this time, was on the navigation of 
the Sangamon river, and was delivered extemporaneously in rejjly to one by a candi- 
date to the Legislature name<l I'osey. He was clerk in a country store from .Vugust, 
1831, till the spring of 1832, when his employer became bankruiJt. During this time 
he piloted the first steamboat that attempted the navigation of the Sangamon. When 
the store was closed he enlisted as a private in a comjiany raised for the Ulack Hawk 
War, but was at once chosen captain. When in the fall of 1832 he became a candidate 
for the Legislature, his political position was not very clearly defined ; his principles 
accorded most nearly with those of the Whig i-iarty, then in process of formation, 
but he had a personal admiration for Jackson. He canvassed the district, but was 
defeated, though he received the almost unanimous vote of his own precinct. He next 
bought a store with a partner named Berry, and was Postmaster of New SaK ni from 
May, 1833, till 1836, when the office was discontinued. Berry proved a drunkard, and 
died soon after the firm became bankrupt. Lincoln paid the debts, discharging the 
last one in 1849. .\fter studying law for a few months, Mr. Lincoln accepted an 
invitation from the County Surveyor, to become his deputy. He studied six weeks, 
entered upon the work, and soon became known as an expert surveyor ; but in the 
autumn of 1834 his instruments were sold under a sheriff's execution. I11 the same 
year he was elected to the Legislature as a Whig, receiving a larger majority than any 
other candidate on the ticket. In the Legislature he was a member of the Committee 
on Public Accounts and Expenditures. He was re-elected in 1836 and served on the 
Finance Committee, and again in 1838 and 1S40, in both of the latter terms being the 
Whig candidate for Speaker. Mr. Lincoln was admitted to the bar in 1837, and with 
John T. Stuart opened an office at Springfield, whither the Capitol of Illinois was 
removed in 1839. He became noted for his ability in jury trials, and finding that 
legislative service interfered with his practice, he declined another re-election. On 
November 4, 1842, he married Mary, daughter of the Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Lex- 
ington, Ky. Mr. Lincoln was a candidate for presidential elector in 1S40, and again 
in 1844, and each time canvassed the State for the \Miig camlidates, being frcipiently 
pitted against Stephen A. Douglas in joint debate. He was a warm admirer of Henry 
Clay, whose defeat was a sore disappointment to him. Mr. Lincoln was elected to 
Congress in 1846. His first speech in Congress was made on January 12, 1848, in sup- 
port of the famous " Spot Resolutions," which were in opposition to the policy of 
Polk's administration, condemning the war with Mexico as unjust, and calling upon 




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llie President to designate the spot where the alleged outrages had been committed by 
the Mexicans. On January i6, 1849, Mr. Lincoln introduced a bill for abolishin'.' 
slavery in the District of Columbia, and for compensating the slave owners, provided a 
majority of the citizens should vote in favor of it. In 1849 'i*-' "''i^ ''" unsuccessful 
candidate for United States Senator against General Shields. President Fillmore 
offered him the Governorship of Oregon, which he declined. In the Republican 
National Convention of 1856, the Illinois delegation presented Mr. Lincoln's name for 
the vice-presidency, and on the informal ballot he received no votes, standing next to 
the Hon. Wm. L. Dayton, who was nominated. In June, 1858, the Reiuiblican Con- 
vention at Springfield nominated him for United States Senator in place of Stephen A. 
Douglas, who was a candidate for re-election. On a challenge from Lincoln, he and 
Douglas canvassed the State together, speaking in joint debate seven times. The out- 
come of this contention between the two was the now celebrated political campaign of 
i860, with Lincoln and Hamlin as the nominees on the ticket of the Republican party, 
and John C. Breckinridge and Stephen A. Douglas, jiresidential nominees, respectively, 
of the extreme Southern and the Northern wings of the Democratic party, [ohn Bell 
received the nomination of the " Constitutional Union " ])arty, composed of anti- 
Lecornpton Democrats, "Know-Nothings" and old-line Whigs. The result of the 
election on Noveml)er 6, was the elevation to the presidency by the jjopular vote of 
Abraham Lincoln. 

The most important act of President Lincoln's administration was his celebrated 
Emancipation Proclamation, in which he declared that on January 1, 1863, the slaves in 
all States or parts of States, which should then be in rebellion, should be proclaimed 
free. This was put forth September 22, 1862, five days after the battle of Antietani 
had defeated Lee's first attempt at invasion of the North, and was published on the 
first day of January following. Colored soldiers were first enlisted into the Federal 
service during Mr. Lincoln's administration, in January, 1863, and within the year their 
number reached 100,000, about 50,000 actually bearing arms ; before the close of the 
war of the rebellion they numbered about 170,000. At the dedication of the cemetery 
in which the slain of the battle of Gettysburg were buried — November 19, 1S63 — 
President Lincoln made a brief address, which is perhaps the finest ever delivered on a 
similar occasion, and w^hich has become familiar to the entire English-reading world. 
As the history of Mr. Lincoln's two administrations is also a history of the civil war, 
it would, consequently, be impossible to give a complete review of all the numerous 
and remarkable events of the period comprising them, within the space to which this 
brief sketch is confined. Mr. Lincoln was renominated June 8, 1864. He was at the 
head of the nation when precedents were worthless, and when no man could forecast 
the future. His conduct during that trying time was governed by the events of the 
day as they appealed to his love of justice and keen sense of the fitness of things. He 
was the most remarkable product of the remarkable possibilities of American life. 
From the poverty in which he was born, and through all his early social and financial 
embarrassments, and the fluctuations of popular politics, he rose to the championship of 
union and freedom when the two seemed utterly inconsistent, never lost his faith when 
both seemed hopeless, and he was suddenly snatched from life when both had been 
secured. On the evening of Good Friday, April 14, 1865, he was assassinated, while 
at Ford's Theatre, Washington, witnessing a performance of " Our American Cousin," 
by John Wilkes Booth, the actor an event that is now historical. 




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flNDI^EW JOHNSON. 



ANDREW JOHNSON, seventeenth I'resident of the United States, was born in 
■'^ Raleigh, N. C, December 29, 1S08. His parents were very poor. At the age nf 
ten he was apprenticed to a tailor. A natural craving for learning was latent in the 
lad, and appears to have been given activity by hearing a gentleman read from an 
ordinary school text-book, " The American Speaker." He was taught the alphabet by 
fellow-workmen, then borrowed tlie "Speaker," and learned to read. In 1824 he 
worked as a journeyman tailor at Laurens Court House, S. C. He married Eliza 
McCardle in 1826, at Greenville, Tenn. She being a woman of refinement, was of great 
assistance to him, teaching him to write, and reading to him while he was at his work 
during the day. It was not until he had been in Congress that he learned to write 
with ease. While in Greenville he was elected an Alderman in 1828, having made 
himself prominent as the leader of the opposition to what was called then the " aris- 
tocratic coterie of the quality" — Tennessee being contiolled in those days by landhold- 
ers, whose interests were fostered by the State constitution, and Greenville itself being 
ruled by the " coterie " mentioned. Johnson's persistent resistance to the supremacy of 
the "coterie " caused his re-election in 1829 and 1830, the latter year advancing him to 
ihe mayoralty, which office he held for three years. Advocating in 1834 the adoj)tion 
of the new State constitution, by which the influence of the large landholders was 
abridged, we find him representing in the following year the counties of Greene and 
Washington in the Legislature. Resisting the popular mania for internal improvements 
caused his defeat in 1837, but his return to the Legislature in 1839 was a final indorse- 
ment of his course in the beginning, the reaction apparently having justified his fore- 
sight, strengthened his influence and restored his popularity. In 1840 he was an elector 
for the State-at-large on Van Buren's ticket, and made a State reputation by the force 
of his oratory. He was elected to the State Senate in 1841 from Greene and Hawkins 
counties. He was in Congress in 1843, having been elected over John A. Asken, a 
United States Bank Democrat, who was supported by the Whigs. His first speech was 
in support of the resolution to restore to General Jackson the fine imposed upon him 
at New Orleans. In 1845 he was re-elected, and sustained Polk's administration, and 
was regularly elected until 1853. During this period he made his celebrated defense 
of the veto power and urged the adoption of the homestead law, which was obnoxious 
to the slaveholding power of the South. In 1853 he was made Governor. The district 
lines had been so " gerrymandered " as to throw him into a district in which the ^\"higs 
had an overwhelming majority. Having announced himself as a candidate, the result 
was his election by a fair majority. The homestead law and other measures for the 
benefit of the working classes were dwelt upon in his message to the Legislature, and 
earned him the title of the "mechanic Governor." He ojjposed the Know-Nothing 
movem.ent with characteristic vehemenc,;, and defeated Meredith P. Gentrv, the \Miig 
candidate, in 1855, after a remarkably exciting canvass. After his election to the 
United States Senate in 1857 he urged the passage of the homestead bill, and on May 
20, 1858, made his greatest speech on that subject. He had the gratification in 1S60 
of seeing his favorite bill pass both Houses of Congress. President Buchanan vetoed 
it, however, and the veto was sustained. Johnson revived it at the next session, and 
also introduced a resolution looking to a retrenchment in the expenditures of the 
government, and on constitutional grounds opposed the grant of aid for the construc- 
tion of a Pacific railroad. He was prominent in debate, and frequently clashed with 



Southern supporters of the administration. His pronounced Unionism estranged him 
from the slaveholders on the one side, while his acceptance of slavery as an 
institution guaranteed by the Constitution caused him to hold aloof from the 
Republicans on the other. When Congress met he took decided and unequivocal 
grounds in opposition to secession, on December 13 introducing a joint resolution 
to amend the Constitution so as to elect the President and Vice-President by dis- 
trict votes, to elect Senators by a direct popular vote, and to limit the terms of Federal 
judges to twelve years, half of them to be fromslaveholding and half from non-slavehold- 
ing States. In his speech on this resolution, December i S and 1 9, he declared his unyield- 
ing opposition to secession, and announced his intention to stand by and act in and 
under the Constitution. The Southern States were then in the act of seceding, and 
every word uttered in Congress was read and discussed by thirty millions of people. 
Johnson's speech, coming from a Southern man, thrilled the popular heart, but his, 
popularity in the North was offset by the virulence by which he was assailed in the South. 
Returning to Tennessee from Washington, he was attacked at Liberty, Va., by a mob, 
and drove them back with a pistol. At Lynchburg he was hooted and hissed, and at 
various ])laces burned in effigy. He retained his seat in the Senate until appointed by 
President Lincoln military Governor of Tennessee, March 4, 1862, and while in that 
position made a superb record for himself, his singular moderation and discretion, 
though he had absolute and autocratic powers, strengthening the Union cause in 
Tennessee. At the Republican convention held in Baltimore June 6, 1S64, Henry J. 
Raymond urging the name of Andrew Johnson for the vice-presidency, after Mr. 
Lincoln had been renominated for the presidency by acclamation, Johnson was 
according selected. He was inaugurated March 4, 1865, and upon the assassination 
of President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, Mr. Johnson was at once sworn in as President. 
On May 29, 1865, he declared a general amnesty to all except fourteen specified 
classes of citizens, among the number excepted being " all participants in the rebellion 
the estimated value of whose taxable property was over twenty thousand dollars." 
On April 29 he issued a proclamation for the removal of trade restrictions, and 
a-^'ain, on May 9, a proclamation restoring Virginia to the Union, while on May 22 all 
ports except four in Texas were opened to foreign commerce, so that it was quite 
evident that a change had taken place in the President's sentiments. After the 
amnesty proclamation, the fundamental and irreconcilable difference between President 
Johnson and the party that had elected him to power became more apparent. The 
first breach between them was the veto of the Freedman's Bureau bill in February, 
1866. Johnson's opposition to the Civil Rights bill, his disapproval of the Fourteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution, his veto of the second Freedman's Bureau bill, and of 
the giving negroes the right of suffrage in the District of Columbia, finally brought 
about an attempt to impeach him, which, however, failed. He vetoed the bill admitting 
Nebraska, and the tenure of office bill. His removal of Edwin M. Stanton from the 
Secretaryship of War led to further trouble for him. On February 24, t868, the House 
passed a resolution to impeach him. The trial began on March 5. On May 16 the 
test vote was had. Thirty- five Senators were for conviction and nineteen for acquittal. 
A change of one vote would have carried conviction. The Senate adjourned sine die, 
and a verdict of acquittal was entered. After the expiration of his term Mr. Johnson 
returned to Tennessee. He was a candidate for the United States Senate, but was 
defeated. He was defeated in 1872 for Congressman from the State-at-large, but yet 
regained his hold u])on the people of the State sufficiently to take his seat in the Senate 
at the extra session of 1875. On his return home at the end of the session he was 
stricken with paralysis, July 29, and died the next day. He was buried at Greenville. 



Ulysses S. Gi^ant. 



I jLYSSES S. GRANT, eighteenth President of the United States, was born at Point 
^ Pleasant, O., April 27, icS22. His ancestors were Scotch. In 1823 his parents 
removed to the village of Georgetown, O., where his boyhood was passed. He entered 
\\'est Point Military Academy in 1S39. His name was originally Hiram Ulysses, but the 
appointment was blunderingly made out for Ulysses S^ and so it had to remain. ihe 
study in which he showed most jiroficiency during his course at the Academy was 
mathematics. He graduated in 1S43, ranking twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine, 
and was made a brevet second lieutenant of infantry and attached as a supernumerary 
lieutenant to the Fourth Regiment, which was stationed on the Missouri frontier. 

In the summer of 1845 the regiment was ordered to Texas to join the army of 
General Taylor. On September 30 Grant was commissioned as a full lieutenant. He 
first saw blood shed at Palo Alto, May 8, 1846, and took jKirt also in the battles of 
Resacos de la Palma and Monterey and the siege of Vera Cruz. After the battle of 
Molino del Rey, September 8, 1847, he was appointed on the field a first lieutenant for 
his gallantry. He was brevetted captain for brave conduct at Chapullepec, to date from 
the battle. 

In 1848 he married Miss Julia T. Dent, of St. Louis, a sister of one of his class- 
mates. In 1852 he accompanied his regiment to California and Oregon, and while at 
Fort Vancouver, August 5, 1853, he was commissioned full captain, after which he was 
not in public life again until the civil war broke out. Then he was chosen to com- 
mand a company of volunteers, with which he marched to Springfield, where he was 
retained as an aide to Governor Yates, and acted as mustering officer of Illinois volun- 
teers until he became Colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment, his commission dating 
from June 17, 1861. 

He joined his regiment at Mattoon, organized and drilled it at Caseyville, and 
then crossed into Missouri, where it formed part of the guard of the Hannibal and 
Hudson Railroad. On July 31 he was placed in command of the troops at Mexico, 
forming a part of General Pope's force. On August 23 he was promoted to be Briga- 
dier-General of Volunteers, the commission being dated back to May 17, and assumed 
command of the troops at Cairo. 

The capture by Grant, on February 16, of lort Donelson, with all its defenders, 
except General Floyd's brigade, was the first brilliant and substantial victory that 
crowned the Federal arms. 

In answer to the proposal of General lUickner, the commander of Fort Donelson, 
that commissioners be ajjiiointed to arrange the terms of capitulation. Grant wrote: 
" No terms other than an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I 
propose to move immediately on your works." To the gratification at so great a mili- 
tary success was added a popular admiration of llie terse and soldierly declaration in 
which the surrender had been demanded, and the hero of the affair sprang at once into 
national celebrity. He was in^mediately commissioned Major-General of Volunteers, 
to date from February 16. After the battle of Pittsburgh Landing, when (Jrant was 
slightly wounded, he became Commander of the Department of West Tennessee, with 
headquarters at Corinth. 

After securing the surrender of Vicksburg, on July 4, 1S63, Grant was promoted 
to the rank of Major-General in the regular army. 

His defense of Chattanooga, which was threatened by Bragg, was mentioned by 
General Halleck in his annual report as, in his opinion, the most remarkable battle in 



history, considering the strength ot' the rebel position and the ditticulty of storming 
his entrenchments. The first measure [lassed in the Congressional session of 1863-64 
was a resolution i)roviding that a gold medal be struck for General Grant, and returning 
thanks to him and his army. Resolutions of thanks were also passed by the Legislatures 
of New York and Ohio. A bill reviving the grade of Lieutenant-General in the army 
was passed by Congress, and on IVLirch i, 1864, received the signature of President 
Lincoln, who at once nominated General Grant for the position. The Senate confirmed 
the nomination on the following day. 

After receiving his commission, upon his arrival in Washington on March 9, 
Grant issued his first general order on the 17th, dated at Nashville, in which he an- 
nounced, upon thus assuming command of the armies of the L'nited .States, that head- 
([uarters would be in the field, and, until further orders, with the army of the Potomac. 
Not before during the civil war had any one General in the field commanded all the 
National armies. (Jrant, with nearly 700,000 men in the field, at once ])lanned two 
campaigns, to be directed simultaneously against vital ])oints of the Confederacy by 
two chief armies under his command: the one under General Meade to operate against 
Richmond, defended by Lee; the other, under General Sherman, against Atlanta, de- 
fended by Johnston. 

(Grant's first attempt .n his movement against Richmond was foiled b\- the bloody 
battle of the Wilderness, Lee, having been apprised in time, boldly taking the offensive 
and striking the Federal columns while they were on the march. After a numlier of 
flanking movements by Grant's army were foiled, and Lee being neither defeated in 
the open field nor cut off from Richmond, the great problem of the war instantlv nar- 
rowed itself down to a siege of Petersburg, which Grant now began. 

Lee's attempt to create a diversion by an invasion of Maryland and an attack on 
Washington failed, Sheridan ultimately driving back the invaders up the valley of the 
Shenandoah; while in Georgia, Johnston was unable to check the advance of Sher- 
man, and his successor in command, Hood, was forced to evacuate Atlanta, and lost 
his army before Nashville. The siege of Petersburg ended, after the victory at Five 
Forks, in the beginning of April, 1865, when Richmond was evacuated and Lee re- 
treated westward toward Danville, followed closely by Grant, who finally compelled 
the surrender of his remaining force, at Appomattox Court House, April 9. 

Upon the conclusion of the war, Cirant fi.xed his headquarters at \\'ashingl()n, 
where, on July 25, 1866, he was commissioned General of the United States Army, the 
rank having been created for him. On August 12, 1867, when President Johns(m sus- 
pended Secretary Stanton from office. General Grant was made Secretarv of War ad 
interim, and held the position until January 14, 1868, when he returned it to Mr. Stan- 
ton, whose removal the Senate had refused to sanction. At the Repulilican National 
Convention held in Chicago, May 21, 1868, General Grant on the first ballot was 
unanimously nominated for President, with Schuyler Colfax for Vice-President. He 
was inaugurated on ^Larch 4, 1869. At the National Republican Convention held in 
I'hiladelphia, June 5, 1872, President Grant was renominated by acclamation, and 
Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, received the nomination for Vice-President. Grant 
retired from office at the close of his second term, ALarch 4, 1877, and on the 17th of 
May embarked at Philadelphia, with his wife and his eldest son, for a tour around the 
world. He visited nearly every country of Europe, and then India, lUirmah, China 
and Japan. After being the recipient of many distinguished honors while abroad, he 
returned September 20, 1879, landing at San Francisco. At the close of the year he 
visited the West Indies and Mexico. He died, as is well known, after a long and jiain- 
fui illness, during which he had the sympathy not only of his own country, but oi the 
I)eople of all foreign lands to which his fame had spread, on July 23, 1885. 




s 



^^-U^SL^ 




I^UTHEI^POI^D B. F^AYBS. 



RUTHERFORD BIRCIIARD HAYES, nineteenth President of the United 
States, was born at Delaware, O., October 4, 1822. His parents were originally 
from Vermont. They removed to Ohio in 181 7. Mr. Hayes' father, who was a 
country merchant, died four months before his son's birth. The latter graduated 
Valedictorian at Kenyon College in 1842. He studied law at Harvard, and was 
admitted to the bar at Marietta, O., in 1845. He began to practice at Lower Sandusky, 
but in 1S50 removed to Cincinnati, where two years later he married Lucy W., daughter 
of Dr. James Webb. In 1856 he was an unsuccessful candidate for Judge of the 
Common Pleas Court. He was appointed City Solicitor to fdl a vacancy in 1859, and 
subsequently was elected to the office, but in 1861 was defeated for re-election. In 
June of that year he was appointed Major of the Twenty-third Ohio Infantry, whicli 
was assigned to duty in West Virginia. In September Major Hayes was ap[)ointed 
Jugde Advocate of the Department of the Ohio. He only fdled this office for about 
two months, being made a Lieutenant Colonel in October. In command of his regi- 
ment, he distinguished himself at the battle of South Mountain, September 14, 1862, 
where he was severely wounded in the arm by a musket ball. The next month he was 
appointed Colonel of his regiment. In 1864 he commanded a brigade in General Cook's 
e.\pedition to cut the communications between Richmond and the Southwest, and led 
the force that successfully stormed the works at Cloyd Mountain. In the first battle of 
Winchester, July 24, 1864, he displayed great personal bravery while leading off on foot 
his brigade, which was overpowered by numbers. At the battle of Berryville he led his 
brigade into action ; and at the battle of Opequan, September 19, he was the first man 
of his command to pass over the slough. In the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, he 
played a prominent part, and his horse was shot under him. Ten days afterward he 
was commissioned Brigadier General, and in March, 1865, he was made a Major 
General by brevet "for gallant services during the campaign of 1864 in West 
Virginia, and particularly at the battles of Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, Va." During 
the war he was wounded four times. In the autumn of 1864 he had been elected to 
represent one of the Cincinnati districts in Congress. He took his seat in December, 
1865, and was made Chairman of the Library Committee. He was re-elected in 1866. 
While in Congress he took little part in debate, but accomplished a large amount of 
work. In 1867 he was elected Governor of Ohio over Judge Thurman by a majority 
of 29S3, and, resigning his seat in Congress, was inaugurated on January 13, 1868. In 
1869 he was re-elected Governor by 7506 majority over George H. Pendleton. Declin- 
ing another election as Governor, he became, in 1872, a candidate for Congress, but 
was defeated by General H. B. Banning. In January, 1874, a wealthy uncle, Sardis 
Birchard, who had educated him and been an intimate friend of his all his life, died, 
leaving him a considerable estate. The campaign of 1875 in Ohio was looked upon as 
of national importance, chiefly because it turned on the financial issue. The Reinib- 
licans again nominated General Hayes, and he was elected over Governor William 
Allen by a majority of 5544. In March, 1876, the Ohio Republican Convention recom- 
mended his nomination for the presidency at the National Convention in Cincinnati, 
June 15, 1876. He received on the first ballot sixty-one votes, forty-four of which were 
those of his own State. His vote steadily increased, until on the seventh ballot, all the 
opponents of Mr. Blaine having united in favor of (iovernor Hayes, he was nominated 
by 384 votes, to 351 for the former and 21 for Benjamin II. Bristow. 



In his letter of acceptance of his nomination by the National Republican Convention 
dated July 8, 1876, Mr Hayes laid especial stress upon three points— civil service 
reform, the currency, and the pacification of the South. The Democrats nominated 
for the presidency Samuel J. Tilden, who, having as Governor of the State of New- 
York won the reputation of a reformer, attracted the support of many Republicans 
who were dissatisfied with their party. The result of the election became the subject 
of acrimonious dispute. Both parties claimed to have carried the States of Louisiana 
South Carolina and Florida. Each charged fraud upon the other, the Republicans 
affirming that Republican voters, especially colored men, all over the South, had been 
deprived of their rights by intimidation or actual force, and that ballot boxes had been 
foully dealt with, and the Democrats insisting that their candidates in Louisiana 
Florida and South Carolina had received a majority of the votes actually cast, and 
that the Republican canvassing boards were preparing to falsify the result' in makin- 
up the returns. The friends of both the candidates for the presidency sent prominent 
men into the States in dispute, for the purpose of watching the proceedings of the 
canvassing boards. The canvassing boards of the States in question declared the 
Republican electors chosen, which gave Mr. Hayes a majority of one vote in the 
electoral college, and the certificates of these results were sent to Washington by the 
Governors of the States. But the Democrats persisted m charging fraud, and other 
sets of certificates, certifying the Democratic electors to have been elected,' arrived at 
Washington. To avoid a deadlock, which might have happened if the canvass of the 
electoral votes had been left to the two Houses of Congress (the Senate havin- a 
Republican and the House of Representatives a Democratic majority) an Tct 
advocated by members of both parties, was passed to refer all contested cases to a 
commission, composed of five Senators, five Representatives and five Judges of the 
Supreme Court— the decision of this commission to be final, unless set aside by a 
concurrent vote of the two Houses of Congress. The commission, refusing to go 
behind the certificates of the Governors, decided in each contested case by a vote 
of eight to seven in favor of the Republican electors, beginning with Florida on 
February 7, and Rutherford B. Hayes was at last, on March 2, declared duly elected 
President of the United States. Thus ended the long and painful suspense The 
decision was generally acquiesced in, and the popular excitement subsided quickly 
President Hayes was inaugurated on March 5, 1S77. Mr. Hayes began his adminis- 
tration with earnest efforts for the reform of the civil service, but his recommendations 
to Congress were unheeded. The dissatisfaction of Republican Senators and Repre- 
sentatives with the endeavors of the administration in the direction of civil service 
reform found vent in various attacks upon the President and the heads of departments 
The administration of President Hayes was, however, on the whole, very satisfactory 
to the people at large, although much attacked by the politicians of both parties. By 
withdrawing the Federal troops from the Southern State houses, and restoring to the 
people of those States practical self-government, it prepared the way for that revival of 
patriotism among those lately estranged from the Union, that fraternal feeling between 
the two sections of the country, and the wonderful material advancement of the South 
which we now witness. It conducted with wisdom and firmness the preparations for 
the resumption of specie payments, as well as the funding of the public debt at lower 
rates of interest, and thus facilitated the development of the remarkable business 
prosperity that continued to its close. While in its endeavors to effect a thorough and 
permanent reform of the civil service, there were consi.icuous lapses and inconsist- 
encies, It accomplished important and lasting results. On the expiration of his term 
Mr. Hayes retired to his home at Fremont, O. 



(3ames fl. Gai^pibld. 



TAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, twentieth President of the United Slates, was born 
•^ in Orange, Cuyahoga county, O., on November 19, 1831. He was from lineage 
well represented in the struggles for civil and religious liberty, both in the Old and in the 
New World. His father, Abram Garfield, was a native of New York, but of Massachu- 
setts ancestry. He was descended from Edward Garfield, an English Puritan, who, in 
1630, was one of the founders of Watertown. His mother, Eliza Ballon, was born in 
New Hami)shire, of a Huguenot family that fled from France to New England after the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685. Abram Garfield, the father of the future 
President, moved to Ohio in 1830, and settled in what was then known as " The Wilder- 
ness," now as the " Western Reserve," which was occupied by Connecticut people. He 
made a prosperous beginning in his new home, but, after a sudden illness, died, leaving a 
widow with four small children, of whom James was the youngest. 'I'he mother brought 
up her family unaided. In the lonely cabin which w^as then their home, she impressed 
upon them a high standard of moral and intellectual worth, her hymns and songs cheer- 
ing them in ilieir tasks. Work was but play under such stimidus. At three years of 
age James A. Garfield went to school in a log hut. He learned to read there. 
There, too, began that habit of omnivorous reading which ended only witli his life. At 
ten years of age he was accustomed to manual labor. The winter days at school 
were the goal of his ambition. Work always yielded its claim to their inlluence. 
By the time he was fourteen he had a fair knowledge of arithmetic and grammar. He 
was particularly apt in the facts of American history, which he had early gathered from 
the scant sources of his remote abode in the wilderness. He read and reread every- 
thing within his reach. He was, too, a constant student of the Scriptures. Much of 
the dignity and earnestness of his literary styles, his contemporary and friend Mr. 
Blaine attributes to their influence. He was fond of stories of adventure and of the 
sea, and came near shipping as a sailor at one time, owing to the effect of them upon 
his imagination. During the w-inter of 1849-50 he attended the Geauga Sem- 
inary at Chester, O., where he met his future wife. Miss Lucretia Rudolph, in 
whom he discovered a congeniality of intellectual pursuits, and a sympathy in tastes 
and ambition, that paved the way for the one great love of his life. In the vacations 
he learned and practiced the trade of a carpenter. He helped at the harvest, too — 
taught — did anything — everything — to get money to pay for his schooling. After the 
first term he asked and needed no aid from home. He had reached that stage of self- 
dependence when he could do w-ithout help from anyone. He had a handsome, robust 
personality. He was strong, fearless, ready for any emergency. He was converted, 
too, at this period to " Campbellism." His nature was profoundly stirred by it. 

Upon finishing his studies in Chester he entered, in 185 1, the Hirnm Eclectic 
Institute, now Hiram College, at Hiram, Portage county, O., the principal educational 
institution of his sect. He was not ciuick of acquisition. His indomitable persever- 
ance, however, conquered all difficulties. He was enabled to ent'.T Williams College 
in the autumn of 1854. He was graduated with the highest honors from that institu- 
tion in the class of '56. In the ne.\t si.\ years he was a college president, a State Sen- 
ator, a Major-General in the national army, and a representative-elect to the National 
Congress. American annals reveal no other promotion so rapid and so varieil. But 
Garfield, despite all this, was not born, but made. He made himself by ])ersistent, 
strenuous, conscientious study and work. He was the [iroduct, at his graduation, of 



twenty-five years of most varied discipline, cheerfully accepted and faithfully used. 
After being a teacher of Latin and Greek for one year at Hiram Institute, u])on his 
return to Ohio, he was made its president at the age of twenty-six. He became an 
intellectual and moral force in the Western Reserve. In 1858 he entered his name as a 
student in a law office in Cleveland, studying in Hiram. Without solicitation or 
thought on his part he was sent, in 1859, to represent the counties of Summit and Port- 
age in the Senate of Ohio. The war came. He who had been farmer, carpenter, 
student, teacher, lawyer, preacher and legislator, was to show himself an excellent 
soldier. In .Xugust, 1861, Governor Wm. Dennison commissioned him Lieutenant- 
Colonel in the Forty-second Regiment of Ohio Volunteers. The men -were his 
old pupils at Hiram College, whom he had persuaded to enlist. His first victory 
was at Middle Creek, January 10, 1862, one of the most important of the minor 
battles of the war. He had been assigned the task of driving the Confederate 
General Humphrey Marshall from eastern Kentucky, after having been given by 
General Buell the command of a brigade, owing to the soldierly condition of his 
regiment, and the confidence with which he had impressed that officer, who allowed 
the young soldier to lay his own plans, though on their success hung the fate of Ken- 
tucky. In recognition of this signal service to the cause, which had an encouraging 
effect upon the entire North, President Lincoln promptly made the young Colonel a 
Brigadier-General, dating his commission from the battle of Middle Creek. The cam- 
paign upon the Big Sandy — Shiloh — Corinth — the campaign in middle Tennessee — and 
his experience at Chicamauga (June 24, 1863), when he was promoted to the rank of a 
Major-General upon a field that was lost — suggested a brilliant military future. He 
yielded his ambition in this direction, nevertheless, to Mr. Lincoln's urgent request, 
resigned his commission December 3, 1863, and hastened to Washington to sit in Con- 
gress, to which he had been chosen fifteen months before, as the successor of John R. 
Giddings. He was thirty-two years old when he entered Congress, and no longer a 
bachelor, having married his old schoolmate, Miss Lucretia Rudolph, November 11, 
1858, in Hudson, O., soon after his accession to the presidency of the college. The 
House was to be the theatre of his lasting fame. His first speech was made on the 
14th of January, 1864, upon a motion to print extra copies of General Rosecrans' 
official report. He was soon regarded as an authority on military matters. He reached, 
perhaps, the climax of his Congressional career during the extra session of the Forty- 
fifth Congress (1879) when, like Webster in 1832, he stood the defender of the Consti- 
tution, and his splendid eloquence and resistless logic upheld the prerogatives of the 
executive, and denounced the attempts that had been made by the Legislature to pre- 
vent or control elections, however disguised, as an attack upon the Constitution. His 
last speech to the House was made on the appointment of special deputy marshals, 
A]iril 23, 1S80. He was already LTnited States Senator-elect from Ohio, having been 
chosen after a nomination of singular unanimity January 13, 1880. He was elected to 
the presidency over his competitor. General Winfield Scott Hancock, November 2, 
1880, and his inaugural address of March 4, 1881, proved satisfactory to the people 
generally. The early summer came. Peace and happiness, and the growing strength 
of his administration, cheered his heart. He was setting out on a trip to New England 
to attend commencement exercises at his alma mater — Williams College. He was pass- 
ing through the waiting-room of the Baltimore and Potomac depot, at nine o'clock on 
the morning of July 2, leaning on the arm of Mr. Blaine, when he was shot by a dis- 
appointed office-seeker, the first ball passing through his coat sleeve, the second enter- 
ing by the back, fracturing a rib and lodging deep in the body. The end came, aftei 
weeks of suffering, at Elberon, X. J., September ig, 1881. The drama of his life was 
over. 



(iHESOiEI^ fl. fll^THUI^. 



CHKSTKK ALAN AKIIIL'R, iwcmy-lnsi President of the United States, was 
born in Fairfield, N't., October 5, 1850. He was the son of a Haptist clergyman, 
who emigrated from Ireland when eighteen years of age, published " The Anti<iuarian " 
for several years, and was the author of "Family Names " (Xew York, 1857). The 
son was graduated at Union College, Schenectady, in 1848, taught school in Vermont, 
was admitted to the bar in 185,3, and settled in New York city. His first notable case 
was the Lemmon slave case, in which he was the attorney for the ])eople, the Hon. 
William M. Evarts being the leading counsel on the same side. They maintained that 
eight slaves, with whom Jonathan Lemmon, of Virginia, attempted to pass through 
New York, were rendered free by the act of the master involuntarily bringing them 
into free territory; and on the successive appeals this view was sustained. In 1S56 
Mr. Arthur was counsel for a colored woman who had been expelled from a street car 
in New York city on account of her color, and obtained a verdict against the com- 
pany, whereby the equal rights of colored people in public vehicles were established. 
From the first organization of the Rcpulilican party he was widely known as a most 
active and influential jjolitician. In January, 1S61, he was aiipointcd, by Governor 
M.organ, Engineer-in-Chief, and a year later Quartermaster-General of the State forcjs, 
Gilding this office til! January i, ICS63, He conducted the duties of his office in 
■ niipping, supplying and forwarding the immense number of troops furnished by his 
....'.te with such success that his accounts were autiited and allowed at Washington 
without deduction, while those of some of the S..„,^ were reduced by millions of 
dollars. It has also been said that, while he had the giving of many large and profit- 
able contracts and the control of enormous purchases, he left the office of Quarter- 
master-General poorer than when he took it. In 1862 there was a secret meeting of 
loyal Governors, to discuss measures for jiroviding troops, at which Mr. Arthur was 
present by invitation, being the only jierson taking part who was not the Governor of 
a State. 

Many instances are related of the notably vigorous administration of his military 
office. In 1863 General Arthur returned to the practice of law and built up a large 
business in collecting claims against the government. He also drafted many imj)ortant 
measures of legislation, and promoted their ado|)tion, both at Washington and -Mbany. 
i"or a short time he w\as counsel of the New York Board of Tax Commissioners. 
-Meantime he took an active part in local politics, and became known for his skill as an 
organizer and manager. He was Collector of the Port of New York from November, 
1871, till July, 1S78, when he was removed by President Hayes. Two s[)ecial com- 
mittees investigated Mr. Arthur's administration of the Collector's office and reported 
nothing on which a charge of official dereliction could be based. Poth the President 
and the .Secretary of the 'Freasury, in connection with his suspension, acknowledged the 
purity of his official acts. .A jietition for his retention in office, signed by all the 
judges of the New York Courts, most of the prominent members of the bar, and nearly 
all the importing merchants of the city, was suppressed by Mr. Arthur himself. The 
only accusation made against him was that of disregarding the President's order in 
respect to active participation in political management. 

.\fter his removal from office he resumed his law practice. The Republican 

National Convention which met in June, 1880, nominated General .\rthur without 

opposition for Vice-President on the urc-sidential ticket with General Garfield, and he 
1 



was elected in November. In the contest between the President and Senators Conk- 
ling and Piatt in regard to appointments in the State of New York, the Vice-President 
supported the Senators aind headed a remonstrance signed by them and by Postmaster- 
General James, addressed to the President, condemning the appointment of William 
H. Robertson for Collector of the Port of New York, and asking that the nomination 
be withdrawn. After the resignation of the New York Senators, General Arthur 
went to Albany and actively participated in the effort to secure their re-election. 
On the death of Garfield, September 19, 1881, he became President. His inaugural 
address was explicit, judicious and reassuring, and his purpose noc to administer his 
high office in the spirit of former faction, although by it he lost some friendships, did 
much toward healing the dissensions with the dominant party. The factional feeling 
in the Republican party, which the year before had resulted in the nomination of Gar- 
field for President, as the representative of one faction, and of himself for Vice-Presi- 
dent, as the representative of the other, had measurably subsided during the canvass 
and the following winter, only to break out anew immediately after the inauguration of 
the new administration, and a fierce controversy was raging when the assassination of 
President Garfield convulsed the nation and created the gravest apprehensions. Cruel 
misjudgments were formed and expressed by men who would now hesitate to admit 
them. The long weeks of alternating hope and fear that preceded the President's 
death, left the public mind perturbed and restless. Doubt and uneasiness were every- 
where apparent. The delicacy and discretion displayed by General Arthur as Vice- 
President had compelled approval, but had not served wholly to disarm prejudice, and 
when he took the murdered President's place, the whole people were in a state of tense 
and anxious expectancy, of which, doubless, he was most painfully conscious. All 
fears, however, were speedily and happily dispelled, President Arthur's conservative 
course commanding universal confidence, preserving public order and promoting busi- 
ness activity. His conduct was the wisest and most desirable that was possible. If 
apparently negative in itself, it was positive, far-reaching and most salutary in its 
results. The service, which at this crisis in ])ublic affairs he thus rendered to the 
country, must be accounted the greatest of his [personal achievements, and the most 
important result of his administration. 

His administration, considered as a whole, was responsive to every national 
demand, and stands in all its dejiartments substantially without assault or criticism. 
He died suddenly of apoplexy at his residence in New York, Thursday morning, 
November 18, 1886. In person. President Arthur was tall, large, well-proportioned, 
and of a handsome and distinguished presence. He was genial in domestic and social 
life, and warmly beloved by his friends. He conducted his official intercourse with 
unvarying courtesy, and dispensed the liberal hospitalities of the executive mansion 
with ease and dignity, and in such a way as to meet universal commendation from 
citizens and foreigners alike. He had a full and strong mind, literary taste and culture, 
a retentive memory, and was apt in illustration by analogy and anecdote. He reasoned 
coolly and logically, and was never onesided. The style of his papers is simple and 
direct. He was eminently conscientious, wise and just in purpose and act as a public 
official ; had always the courage to follow his deliberate convictions, and remained 
unmoved by importunity or attack. He married, on October 29, 1859, Ellen Lewis 
Herndon of Fredericksburg, Va., who died January 12, 1880, leaving two children, 
Chester Alan Arthur and Ellen Herndon .Vrthur. 



Gl^OYBI-^ (©LEVBIjAND. 



G ROVER CLEVELAND, the twenty-second President of the United States, 
was born at Caldwell, a small town of Essex county, in the State of New 
Jersey, on the uSth day of March, 1837. 

On the paternal side, young Grover was of English extraction, and the salient 
features of his genealogy may be briefly epitomized as follows : 

Moses Cleveland emigrated from Ipswich, a town of Suffolk county, in I''.ngland, 
in 1635, and settled at Woburn, one of the pioneer villages of Massachusetts, where he 
lived, prospered in business, and died in 1701. He left a grandson, Aaron, whose son 
in turn, also Aaron by name, was the great-great-grandfather of Grover Cleveland. 

The sons of this second Aaron Cleveland moved from the old homestead in 
Massachusetts to Norwich, Conn., where William, the eldest, liecame locally famous as 
a cunning worker in silver and skillful watchmaker. 

His son, Richard Falley Cleveland, early in life developed studious habits, and 
upon his graduation from Yale College, in 1824, was ordained to the Presbyterian 
ministry, and, after a lapse of four years devoted to theological study, married Anne 
Neal, daughter of a Baltimore mercihant, of Irish birth. These two were the parents 
of Grover Cleveland. When four years of age his father accepted a call to h'ayette- 
ville, near Syracuse, N. Y., where young Cleveland's scholastic training conunenced. 
The next move of the minister's family was to Clinton, Oneida county, N. \.. where 
Grover's academic career was continued and completed. 

At seventeen years of age, seeking to improve his fortune, he visited New \'ork 
city, and through the good services of his brother William, now a Presbyterian min- 
ister, presiding over a charge at Forest Point, N. Y., secured a position of assistant 
teacher in the New York Institute for the Blind. After a short career in this uncon- 
genial capacity he returned to Oneida county, where his mother was living in compara- 
tive poverty, and in 1855 started for the far West in search of employment alike 
congenial and profitable. On his way he stopped at Black Rock, now a part of Buf- 
falo, in order to spend a day with his uncle's family. This gentlem.in, Mr. Lewis !•'. 
Allen, persuaded young Cleveland to remain and assist in the compilation of a volume 
of the American Herd-Book. He remained, worked hard, and as a recompense for six 
weeks of arduous toil received — what in those comparatively early days was deemed a 
munificent reward — $60. 

In August of 1855, after weeks of anxious search and sustained effort, he secured a 
position in the offices of Rogers, Bowen & Rogers, prominent at the lUiffalo bar, as 
general clerk and copyist, at a salary of $4 per week. A\'hile there he diligenily prose- 
cuted the study of law, and in 1859 was admitted to the bar. But for three years 
longer he remained in the service of his original employers at a salary, which was 
finally increased to $1000 per annum. 

In 1863 he was appointed Assistant District .Vtlorney of Erie county. Two of 
Cleveland's brothers were at that time in the army, leaving his mother and sister de- 
pendent almost solely u])on him for sujiport. Unal)le in consequence to enlist, he 
borrowed money with which to send a substitute, and it was not until long after thi 
termination of the w'ar that he w.is able to repay the loan. In 11^65, at the early age ot 
twenty-eight, he was the Democratic candidate for District Attorney of ]']r\v county. 




»- A 



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but was defeated by the Republican candidate, his intimate friend and subsequent law 
[jartner, Lyman K. Bass. 

He then effected a jKirtnershii) with Isaac \'. V'anderpool, and in 1869 became a 
member uf the firm of Lansing, Cleveland & Folsom. He continued in successful 
practice until his election as sheriff of Erie county in 1870. At the expiration of his 
term of office he formed a ])artnership with his old and successful jjoiitical antagonist, 
Lyman K. Bass, which continued in operation for many years. The firm was success- 
ful in its ])ractice, and Mr. Cleveland won marked distinction as a pleader alike for 
the simplicity and directness of his logic, his careful preparation of cases and thorough 
mastery of detail. 

In the autumn of 1881 lie was nommated l)y the Democratic jjarty for the Mayor- 
alty of the city of Buffalo, and was elected by a majority of 35J0 votes, the largest 
ever before given to any candidate for municipal honors in that city. He entered 
upon the duties of his new office on the ist of January, 1882, and soon won for himself 
the sobriquet of the " veto i\Liyor,'" using that jjrerogative liberally in checking what he 
deemed to be unwise expenditures of the city's money. But his career as Mayor of 
Buffalo was destined to be short-lived. The Democratic State Convention met at 
Syracuse on the 2 2d of September, 1882, and on tha second day of its session and 
upon the third ballot Crover Cleveland was nominated for Covernor of the State of 
New York in ojjposition to Charles J. Folger, at that time Secretary of the United 
States Treasurv. The election, which in many respects was a remarkal)le one in the 
[)olitical annals of New York, resulted in the triumjih of Grover Cleveland, who 
received a plurality over his opponent ot 192,854 votes, the total vote cast being 
918,894. On the last day of the following September he took the oath of office, and a* 
once entered ui)on the gubernatorial administration of affairs. 

The following two years of his life were absorbed in strict attention to affairs of 
State, no break to the monotony and severity of the labor being furnished until July 8, 
1884, at which time the Democratic National Convention met at Chicago, and Grover 
Cleveland's name became prominent as a candidate for the exalted office of President 
of the United States. After three days devoted to the detail of organization and the 
introduction of the names of the various candidates, on the morning of the 12th of Jidy 
Mr. Cleveland received 683 votes out of a total of 820 cast, or more than sufficient tn 
secure his nomination, which upon motion was then made unanimous. 

There is one feature of his official career which, although inirely social in its 
bearing, will remain identified with his administration as an occurrence of public 
interest for all time to come. We refer to President Cleveland's marriage in the 
White House to Miss Frances Folsom, daughter of his deceased friend and partner, 
Oscar Folsom, of the Buffalo bar. This lady, with the single exception of tlie wife of 
President Madison, was the youngest of the many mistresses of the White House, and 
the very first in American history to be married within its honored walls. 

Mr. Cleveland was renominated by the convention of his party at St. Louis in 
June, 1888. The campaign which resulted was bitter and unrelenting. His opponent, 
Mr. Harrison, carried twenty Slates, with 238 electoral votes, and Mr. Cleveland 
eighteen States, with 168 electoral votes. Immediately after the inaug\iration of iiis 
successor Mr. Cleveland took up his residence in New York, where he has since 
practiced his profession, law, and has been interested in great causes, earning a large 
income. He purchased a ])lace of about 100 acres near the head of Buzzard's Bay in 
Massachusetts, and spends his summers there in as much retirement as the visits of his 
friends ])ermit. 



BENoJAMIN F^ai^i^ison. 



BFA'JAMIN HARRISON, the twenty-third President of the United States, comes 
of an historic family. While it is by no means certain that, as has been asserted, 
he can claim descent from the Roundhead Major-General Thomas Harrison, who 
fought under Oliver Cromwell, was one of the signers of the death warrant of t^liarles 
I, and after the restoration iKiid the penalty of that act by being " hanged, drawn and 
([uartered" on October 13, 1660, by the faithful servants of his most gracious majesty 
Charles H, it is known that the descendants of Thomas Harrison, after his execution, 
emigrated to Virginia. It is claimed that Benjamin Harrison, the namesake and great- 
grandfather of the subject of this sketch, who was born in that colony in the following 
century, came from this family, but whether or not, he made a name for himself as a 
C:olonial Congressman, and as thrice elected Covernor of Virginia, and will go down 
to posterity as one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He died in 1791. 

His son, William Henry Harrison, who afterward became the ninth President of 
the United States, was born in lierkely County, Va., in 1773. He joined the army 
when nineteen years of age, and in 1795 was made a Captain and placed in command 
of Fort Washington, on the site of the present city of Cincinnati. Six years later, in 
1 80 1, he received the appointment as Governor of the newly created Territory of 
Indiana, \vhich embraced the area covered by the present States of Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan and Wisconsin. In the year 181 1 he led a body of 800 regular soldiers 
against the forces of the famous Indian chief Tecumseh, whom he defeated at the 
historical battle of Tippecanoe, a name which was afterwards adojited by his political 
followers as their battle cry, and has ever since been associated with his own. In the 
following year, 1812, he was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General and sub.se- 
(juently was made Major-General. Later General Harrison served the country accept- 
ably as Representative, United States Senator and Foreign Minister. 

In 1840 he was elected President and was inaiigurated March 4, 184T, but only 
about a month later he was attacked by a complaint brought on by over-exertion 
during the campaign, and died within a few days. John Scott Harrison, the son of 
the President and father of Benjamin Harrison, was a farmer, but was several times 
elected County Clerk, and also served more than one term as a member of Congress. 

General Benjamin Harrison first saw the light at North I'.end, O., August 20, 1833, 
in the house from which his grandfather was elected President. His early life was the 
ordinary one of the son of a plain farmer. He was worked hard, and, at the district 
school, which he attended until fifteen years of age, he was well taught. On leaving 
the district school, he entered the Miami University at Oxford, O., from which, at the 
age of eighteen, he graduated fourth in a class of sixteen. It was while at Oxford that 
he met the lady who afterward became his wife. She was a daughter of the Rev. J. 
W. Scott, the principal of a female seminary in the town, and when he left college to 
enter upon the study of law in the office of Judge Bellamy Storer in Cincinnati, the 
young couple were engaged to be married. Before Harrison was twenty-one years of 
age they were married and he had been admitted to the bar. 

The breaking out of the war found Harrison living quietly and peacefully, the 
father of a young family, working industriously for his modest income ; in fact in just 
such a position that he might have been pardoned had he hesitated about rushing at 



once to the front. But he was not the man to hold back in such an emergency. 
The story is told of him that, having gone to Governor Morton to ask for a military 
command for one of his friends, he found the Governor in low spirits o\er the slow 
response to his call for troops. Stepping to a window he railed his visitor's attention 
to some workmen engaged in building a house, and expressed his surprise that they 
could work on so calmly when the next day there might be no Government to protect 
their property. Harrison left him, and, without going home or consulting wife or 
friends, went straight to a hat store, procured an army hat, and, inside an hour, was 
])arading the streets behind a fife and drum enlisting recruits. Entering the service as 
Second Lieutenant, he became Captain and afterward Colonel of the Seventieth Indiana 
Volunteers, but his regiment being assigned chiefly to garrison and guard duty, he had 
at first little opportunity to distinguish himself, and it was at Resaca that he first won 
renown, leading a charge in which one-third of his command were killed or wounded. 
It was after that splendid dash that Fighting Joe Hooker rode up to him and said, as 
he reined in his horse : " Ben Harrison, I'll make you a Brigadier for this dav's work." 
He was brevetted Brigadier-General shortly after this, and afterward served with 
gallantry and without injury until the war ended and the troops were mustered out. 
He was described at the time as being, although thirty years of age, a mere boy in 
appearance and slight of frame. He was well liked, however, and commanded the 
respect and confidence of all who came in contact with him. He was noted for the 
quiet, but firm way in which he stood up for the rights of his command in the way of 
good camping places, accoutrements, supplies and the like, even wliile inexperienced 
in soldiering, having learned what his rights were, and almost invariably succeeded in 
getting them, a fact which added not a little to his popularity with his men. 

With the return of peace General Harrison laid aside the sword and was re-elected 
reporter to the Supreme Court, again entering, to some extent, the field of politics. 
The important duties of that office were, however, performed by him with such pains- 
taking care, and withal so satisfactorily, that in i86S he was offered the nomination for 
another term. This, however, he declined, and again began the practice of law, which 
he continued successfully until 1876, when he was nominated for Governor. It was 
during the Tilden and Hendricks campaign, and from the first it seemed a foregone 
conclusion that he would be beaten, but he made a most vigorous campaign, and, 
although defeated, ran about 2,000 votes ahead of the rest of his ticket. This fact 
placed him in such prominence in his party that in 1881 he was elected to the United 
States Senate almost without opposition. In this position he served six years, retiring 
in March, 1887, when he went back to the practice of his profession at Indianapolis. 
As a Senator General Harrison favored the regulation of foreign contract labor, and 
was one of the committee which reported the Chinese Restriction bill ; he opposed 
alien ownership of large tracts of land ; upon the silver question he is a bimetalist. He 
was nominated for President at Chicago by the Republican National Convention on 
June 25, 1888, and was elected by 233 electoral votes, against 168 for Grover Cleveland, 
who was the Democratic candidate for the second time. 

General Harrison is reasonably well off, but is not a rich man. He has two 
children, a daughter and a son. He is described as being short, sturdy and compact, 
his hair and full beard sprinkled with gray. He has a straight nose, light blue eyes, 
and a rather large mouth and a square, firm jaw. He is a modest man, and is much 
liked and respected by his townsmen. 



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